RBC Bearings Incorporated (NYSE:RBC) Q4 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

RBC Bearings Incorporated (NYSE:RBC) Q4 2026 Earnings Call Transcript May 15, 2026

RBC Bearings Incorporated beats earnings expectations. Reported EPS is $3.62, expectations were $3.31.

Joshua Carroll: Good morning, and thank you for joining us for RBC Bearings Fiscal Fourth Quarter 2026 Earnings Call. I’m Josh Carroll with the Investor Relations team. With me on today’s call are Dr. Hartnett, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer; Daniel Bergeron, Director, Vice President and Chief Operating Officer; and Rob Sullivan, Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. As a reminder, some of the statements made today may be forward-looking and under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ materially from those projected or implied to a variety of factors. We refer you to RBC Bearings’ 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 listed in the press release, along with the reconciliation between GAAP and non-GAAP financial information. With that, I’ll now turn the call over to Dr. Hartnett.

Mike Hartnett: Thank you, Josh, and good morning, and thank you all for joining us this morning. As usual, I’ll begin today’s call with a brief review of our financial results and highlight several key trends we see across the sectors. Then I’ll turn the call over to Rob Sullivan, who will provide additional details on our financial performance for the fourth quarter. Fourth quarter net sales increased 18.3% year-over-year to $518 million, driven by continued momentum in our A&D segment and steady growth in our Industrial businesses. Consolidated gross margin was 44.4% for the quarter or 45.3% on an adjusted basis. Adjusted diluted EPS increased year-over-year to $3.62 compared to $2.83 in the prior year period. Adjusted EBITDA rose 21% to $168.9 million, up from $139.8 million last year.

Free cash flow remained a strong $67.5 million, and we paid down an additional $116 million of debt during the quarter. Now turning to our 2 business segments. Approximately 57% of our revenue during the quarter came from our Industrial segment, 43% came from our A&D segment. Our A&D business has continued to deliver exceptional performance with segment revenue increasing 41.2% compared to the prior year period. This strong momentum in aerospace and defense is further reflected in our backlog, which has continued to expand and currently stands at approximately $2.3 billion. This growth continues to be driven by robust demand across the defense and space markets, along with unprecedented commercial aircraft build rates at the major builders.

For the full year, A&D segment was up 32%, of which 19.1% was organic. With regard to our business segments, commercial aircraft was up 17.8%, 17.3% of which was organic. Defense was up 65.4% and 22.1% was organic. Our key revenue drivers, first, as many of you know, marine has been a significant contributor to our backlog growth, driven by accelerating build-out of the submarine fleet. Given the strategic importance of submarines within today’s defense strategies, we expect this to remain a meaningful tailwind as production rates continue to ramp across all subcontractors for both the Virginia and Columbia class programs as well as fleet spares. We are adding machinery and floor space to accommodate increased production rates as we speak. Next is missiles.

Missile-related revenue was up significantly this year with revenue for this sector exceeding $45 million in the fiscal year. Some of this gain did come from our recent VACCO acquisition. This growth really reflects increased content we have across several top missile programs and the expanding demand we are seeing given the current global conditions. We are planning for sustained growth in requirements for this sector in the current and future years. We are also seeing an impressive ramp in our space business as investments in this sector continue to hit record levels. During the year, we saw space revenues come in just above $70 million, including $30 million from 8 months contribution by VACCO. This impressive growth, especially considering that space-related revenue was only $4 million for RBC back in 2021.

As this trend accelerates and private investment grows, space infrastructure is being viewed not only as a major strategic national priority, but as a substantial and essential commercial reality. On top of this strong momentum, we are also supporting the unprecedented production rates for commercial aircraft and engines. As you know, we are deeply embedded across these markets on 3 continents and as a result, expect to see continued growth at both the OEM and aftermarket levels. Turning now to our Industrial business. Performance remained steady and up during the period with OEM revenue increasing 7.8% and distribution revenue growing at 4.5%. During the quarter, we saw strength in aggregates, warehousing, food and beverage, grain and semiconductor end markets.

As we look to the fiscal year 2027, we are encouraged by the continued strength of our operating environment and the building momentum across many businesses. We firmly believe our strong service levels, coupled with our brands, our renowned brands, market positions and technical expertise provide for continued strong financial results long into the future. This was a record year for RBC. And as always, it is a true team effort. I want to thank our employees across the organization for their hard work, dedication and unwavering commitment to executing our strategy and serving our clients with excellence. With that, I’ll turn the call over to Rob, who will walk us through the financials.

Robert Sullivan: Thank you, Mike. We closed fiscal year 2026 with another strong quarter that exceeded our expectations with net sales growing 18.3%, which led to an 18.9% increase in our reported gross margin. Gross margins were 44.4% for the quarter or 45.3% on an adjusted basis compared to 44.2% in the same period last year. Fourth quarter A&D sales increased 41.2% year-over-year. With the VACCO acquisition excluded, our A&D business saw an increase in sales of 22.8%, which highlights the continued strong growth in our legacy commercial and defense markets. A&D gross margins during the quarter were 41.6% or 44.2% on an adjusted basis, and Industrial margins were 46.5% or 46.2% on an adjusted basis. Excluding VACCO, our Aerospace & Defense gross margins were 43.7% during the period.

We are encouraged by the margin improvement we’ve achieved within A&D, driven by increased efficiencies, volumes and newly awarded contracts in the period. Looking ahead, we expect these benefits to continue to further support margin improvement while recognizing the impact will be gradual as these benefits flow through. On the SG&A line, we had total cost of $86.9 million or 16.8% of net sales for the quarter. This ultimately resulted in an adjusted EBITDA of $168.9 million or 32.6% of sales for the quarter. That represents an approximate 21% increase in adjusted EBITDA dollars during the quarter compared to the same period last year. Interest expense for the quarter was $11.2 million. This was down 12.5% year-over-year, reflecting the improved leverage position achieved over the last 12 months, coupled with lower interest rates compared to this time last year.

We paid off $116 million of debt during the quarter and another $27 million since the end of the fourth quarter. The tax rate in our adjusted EPS calculation was 21% compared to last year’s 21.7%. This led to adjusted diluted earnings per share of $3.62, representing growth of 27.9% year-over-year. Free cash flow in the quarter came in at $67.5 million with conversion of 73.6% compared to $55 million and 75.7% last year. For the full year, free cash flow was $342.6 million, with conversion of 119.1% compared to $243.8 million and 99% last year. Our capital allocation strategy continues to remain focused on deleveraging by using the cash that we generate to pay off our outstanding debt, and we continue to remain on track to pay off the remainder of the term loan by November of 2026.

Looking into the first quarter of fiscal year 2027, we are guiding revenues of $500 million to $510 million, representing year-over-year growth of 14.7% to 17%. Adjusted gross margin is expected to be in the range of 45.25% to 45.5%, and SG&A as a percentage of net sales is expected to be in the range of 16.5% to 16.75%. with that, operator, please open the call for Q&A.

Q&A Session

Operator: [Operator Instructions] And our first question comes from the line of Kristine Liwag with Morgan Stanley.

Kristine Liwag: I wanted to dive a little bit deeper into your comments about the missile end markets. So first, you talked about how VACCO was able to increase share of content on programs. Can you expand more about what that looked like? And also the genesis of this question, ultimately, with the multiyear agreements that we’re seeing, the Department of War sign with the missile providers, we’re seeing volumes of 200% to 1,000% growth in the next 5 to 7 years. So I just want to understand more how VACCO plays into that? And then also with VACCO’s deeper relationships with some of these customers, are there avenues in which RBC Bearings can increase total company share into some of these end markets to solve for the shortages that the industry is facing?

Mike Hartnett: Well, Kristine. There was a lot of questions in there.

Kristine Liwag: Sorry. I hope you answered them all, though, Mike.

Mike Hartnett: Well, VACCO provides some pretty unique components to manage fuel systems. And in the case where their fuel system is generated by liquid propulsion, VACCO has products that are pretty widely used, particularly on some of the more significant programs like the Tomahawk. So we expect to see more expansion with VACCO on these missile programs as time goes on. And sort of enough said there. But on the RBC side, I mean, we’re probably — we sort of took a little survey of around our plants to see exactly which systems we were servicing. And it’s a pretty broad range of systems. And it certainly gets the well-known Patriot and the GMLRS and the Tomahawks and — but there’s also the standard missile, the JAGMs, the ASTER missile in Europe.

And there’s a next-gen missile that’s recently been developed to replace the Hellfire. So we’re on all those systems. And it’s — and we are definitely expanding our production capability to participate further in all of these programs. So that’s happening now. I’m not sure I got all of your questions answered, but I think I might have touched on a few of them.

Kristine Liwag: Yes. That’s super helpful to get the context for those programs. But I guess, Mike, as you kind of look at the significant growth the industry needs to build to be able to meet the capacity needs of the Pentagon, it just seems like a very big number, right? So I guess my follow-up question to that is you have your existing share and you’ve got this volume, and it sounds like you’ll be prepared for that. But are there other avenues where you could take higher shipset content in these programs so you would get the double benefit of the volume plus potential share increase?

Mike Hartnett: Yes. The answer there is yes, and we’re working on that now. And so we’re working on both. The volume is pretty substantial on some of these programs. I think one of the programs I didn’t mention was the hypersonic missile program, which we’re also part of, which is a significant program for us. So yes, I mean, we’re going to have our hands full with volume. And at the same time, we’re increasing mix. And increasing the mix is a little bit slower because it requires tooling and that sort of thing. But it’s within the — a 3-year — certainly within a 3-year period.

Kristine Liwag: Great. That’s super helpful. And you also called out your space revenue exposure, which is larger right now than your missile exposure. For this end market, can you give us an idea about your customer sets? Are these traditional space companies? Are these the new space companies? What’s your role in that ecosystem? And where do you see the growth coming from?

Mike Hartnett: Well, it’s both. It’s both the existing people that service the space industry since Apollo. It’s the Boeings and the Lockheeds and the Northrops and the Raytheons, the Collins and so on. So it’s that standard group, which we been long associated with, but it’s also the new people such as, of course, SpaceX and Blue and Rocket Lab and a few others whose names don’t come to mind quickly. So yes, I mean, we — it’s both sides of the street. It’s — right now, we — I’d like to think of it as 50 years ago, when there was the Apollo program, the only table in the casino was NASA. And now it’s a huge casino with many tables, NASA being one of the tables. And so there’s just a lot of places to do business for our particular mix of talents and manufacturing skills. And so we’re really very actively engaged in trying to determine how to take that forward in the best possible way for our shareholders.

Kristine Liwag: Great. Very great to see a solid quarter from you.

Mike Hartnett: Thank you.

Robert Sullivan: Thanks.

Operator: Our next questions are from the line of Steve Barger with KeyBanc Capital Markets.

Steve Barger: Mike, for the last few quarters to include your comments today, you’ve talked about adding equipment and head count to support customer ramps. I’m curious, where are you tightest capacity-wise by end market or program? And what do you think the entire company is capacitized to from a revenue standpoint?

Mike Hartnett: Oh, You’re asking even bigger questions, Steve. Well, certainly, we’re tight on producing marine hardware. There’s no question about that. It’s got our attention. And — we’re adding equipment and floor space and test labs and people to accommodate that. I mean the submarine business has been sort of dormant since they canceled the Seawolf. Now it has to — the entire support system is in this extremely aggressive ramp and doing everything they can to keep up with the priority right now being the Colombia. And so it’s — yes, it’s taxing. We’re up to it. We’re making progress. We’re adding capacity. We’ll probably — we’re attempting to double our revenues over a short period of time, years, not months, Steve. It’s all production related, but we’re definitely going to double our revenues in that sector over the next 24 to 36 months.

Steve Barger: And then just overall company, like you’re running at $500 million run rate, so $2 billion annualized. How much does the current footprint with incremental kind of tweaks like support $2.5 billion or $3 billion? Just trying to get a sense for when you need a more robust and long life kind of capacity expansion or CapEx cycle?

Mike Hartnett: Well, the CapEx cycle, this past year has been adding bricks and mortars and sort of moving some plants around that because the infrastructure in existing plants got a little tired and it seemed better to build a new one than it did to fix the old one. So we spent a little bit money on brick-and-mortar. And — but going forward, it’s going to go into equipment. And so we expect to be in that 3.5%, maybe 4% range some years, and it will be hard equipment. And in terms of production ability, we have some great plants in Mexico that are well staffed and well tooled and are big production aids for us. And so — and our ability to flex those plants is high. So that really helps with the capacity situation. It’s more difficult to hire in the United States in many areas. It’s taxing. It’s less difficult in Mexico. And so it’s — that’s been part of our strategy in terms of increasing our throughput.

Steve Barger: Got it. And then for a follow-up, with multiple programs ramping at the same time, are you seeing supply chain constraints for the things outside your control that could affect the programs you sell into? Any issues with castings or forgings or things that you source?

Mike Hartnett: Yes. On the A&D side, there’s always the issue of titanium. There may be — we haven’t seen it yet, but we’re watching aluminum. High alloy steel is available at a price that’s extraordinary. But if you have the money, you’ll get the steel. So those are some of the areas to watch for us.

Operator: Next question is from the line of Scott Deuschle with Deutsche Bank.

Scott Deuschle: Dr. Hartnett, can you give us any sense as to what level of commercial aerospace growth you’re planning for in fiscal 2027?

Mike Hartnett: Well, yes. Certainly, the demand will be greater than our growth, and our growth will be beyond — we’re planning for growth on commercial aerospace beyond 15%.

Scott Deuschle: Okay. And will you expect defense and space together to grow faster or slower than commercial aerospace?

Mike Hartnett: Faster.

Scott Deuschle: Okay. Good news. And then there’s been some recent notable strength in the industrial automation market recently. I guess, can you remind us as to how much exposure you have to industrial automation, and then speak to the demand trends that RBC is seeing in that vertical specifically?

Mike Hartnett: Industrial automation as a supplier to industrial automation?

Scott Deuschle: Yes.

Mike Hartnett: Yes. Well, I mean, that part of it as a supplier to that, that’s a little bit of a small sector for us, but it’s — we like it. I mean it’s — I think we’re in the $40 million to $50 million a year range kind of in that space. And yes, certainly, semicon fits into that space nicely, where we supply robotic components for chip manufacturing. And that demand has been strong. It hasn’t shown up in FY ’26 is a significant contributor, but it will in ’27.

Scott Deuschle: Okay. And then can you share any detail on what the current level of annualized sales is for RBC into the humanoid robot sector, and what type of growth you’ve been seeing there recently?

Mike Hartnett: It’s small. It’s — for us, that’s still sample making. And we continue to support the industry as it’s being developed. We don’t see any volumes there from anybody.

Operator: The next question is from the line of Pete Skibitski with Alembic Global.

Peter Skibitski: Nice quarter. Mike, in the way of understanding kind of recent trends, are you guys seeing any headwinds in the commercial aerospace aftermarket just from airlines kind of tightening their belts in this higher jet fuel environment if we think about April and kind of May to date?

Mike Hartnett: I’d say we haven’t seen it yet. We’re watching it. We’re — it’s on the bubble.

Peter Skibitski: Got it. And your aftermarket, is it more leverage to the engine than to the airframe?

Mike Hartnett: Yes.

Peter Skibitski: Okay. Okay. I guess last one for me. Just on — can you update us on where you’re at with the — your commercial OEM, the LTA repricings? I’m just wondering if all of your LTAs have repriced at this point to sort of the post-COVID inflation environment. I think, I had written down that January 1, 2026, you’d have — I don’t know if it was 100% of your contracts would be repriced at that point or some lower percent. I just wondering if you could shed light on that.

Mike Hartnett: Yes. I would say that’s about 60%. There’s still another 40% to go.

Peter Skibitski: Okay. I guess by the end of this fiscal year or maybe 2 more fiscal years?

Mike Hartnett: Effective January ’27.

Operator: [Operator Instructions] The next question is from the line of Alexandra Mandery with Truist.

Alexandra Eleni Mandery: Nice results. I just want to see if you could provide any further details underpinning the fiscal 1Q guidance and any initial thoughts on fiscal 2027.

Robert Sullivan: Yes. Just like we typically do when we put these together, we have a range of outcomes, both in Aerospace and Industrial, and that’s kind of where we led to the $500 million to $510 million on sales. The Aerospace margins have obviously been accelerating, and we’re very happy with that. And that was contemplated when we were looking at the consolidated margins that you see in Q1 — the industrial margins have obviously been coming in at a higher level. So as aerospace and defense has been growing faster, it just puts a little bit of a dilutive effect on the consolidated margins. But for the full year, we think we can still expand the consolidated gross margins by about 50 basis points. So that’s kind of how we put it together. And in SG&A, it’s just a reflection of our kind of continued investment in the organization to effectively be able to achieve the growth that we see in front of us.

Alexandra Eleni Mandery: Great. And I guess what is your M&A appetite going forward? And what capabilities or company profile might you be looking for if you’re interested?

Mike Hartnett: Well, the profile is — would be mechanical products, servicing a customer base similar to — very similar to almost by name to the customer base that we currently service. It would be a company that would be preferred to be insolvent. And it would be in a geography that would be easy for us to get to repair an insolvent company.

Operator: The next question is a follow-up from the line of Scott Deuschle with Deutsche Bank.

Scott Deuschle: Rob, the SG&A costs came in a bit high relative to guidance this quarter. Can you speak to what drove that? It looks like stock comp is a piece of it, but I think there was other piece as well.

Robert Sullivan: It’s really primarily personnel costs that kind of flow through just the timing and certain compensation matters that kind of flowed through. Stock comp specifically was up notably and then just a few other administrative costs that kind of came through.

Scott Deuschle: Okay. Should we expect it to trend above $80 million a quarter going forward? It looks like that’s what the first quarter guide implies, but just wanted to check if I should continue to have that in mind.

Robert Sullivan: Yes. I think that’s probably right. It will be a little bit above $80 million.

Scott Deuschle: Okay. And then last question for Dr. Hartnett. Just as SpaceX ramps up production of Starship, should we expect that to drive an acceleration in your space revenue growth?

Mike Hartnett: Modestly, I think. I think we’re still working on some Starship programs. But I’d say right now, the outlook there for us would be modest.

Operator: The next question is from the line of Steve Barger with KeyBanc.

Steve Barger: Mike, last quarter, you were early versus other companies talking about an industrial inflection, saying demand improved in December and January. Has that momentum really held up exiting your 4Q into 1Q?

Mike Hartnett: Yes, I would say it has. I mean it’s modest, but it’s held up.

Steve Barger: I would say the story through industrial earnings has been kind of a broadening out of orders across automation, semis, power, some of the same things that you talked about. I guess are you seeing more breadth in the Industrial order book?

Mike Hartnett: Breadth in terms of sectors serviced?

Steve Barger: Yes, across more end markets. Last year, aerospace, defense, and I guess things related to data center were really the drivers. Is that broadening out to some degree?

Mike Hartnett: Well, when I — when you look at the amount of money that’s going into the AI and the build-out of the server farms and it’s — there’s an enormous amount of build-out that’s occurring right now. And since our aggregate business is — our aggregate business up 20%, 17%, something like that. So you can see it through our aggregate business, that something extraordinary is happening someplace in the United — in North America. And that has breadth.

Steve Barger: Yes. No, I think that’s an interesting comment on just kind of that should be a leading indicator to a lot of other industrial end markets as that kind of flows through. Does that make sense to you?

Mike Hartnett: Yes, it does. Yes.

Operator: The next question is from the line of Ross Sparenblek with William Blair.

Ross Sparenblek: Just one quick question for me. Did I hear you right that the ex VACCO, Aerospace & Defense gross margins were 43.7%?

Robert Sullivan: Correct.

Samuel Struhsaker: So that puts VACCO around 48% gross margins in the quarter?

Robert Sullivan: VACCO was about — it was over 46% this quarter. They had some really strong unique items flow through this quarter, great mix and that kind of pushed it. So I would not expect that to be the naturalized run rate. For the full year, I believe their adjusted margins were probably more in the mid-30s, which is their normal operational level. And that’s baked into the forecast for the Q1.

Ross Sparenblek: Well said, that’s a pretty exceptional trajectory if we were to assume that into ’27.

Robert Sullivan: Yes, yes. Yes, don’t assume that.

Ross Sparenblek: All right. Well, nice quarter, gentlemen.

Robert Sullivan: Thank you.

Operator: Thank you. At this time, I’ll turn the floor back to Dr. Hartnett for closing comments.

Mike Hartnett: Okay. Well, we thank everybody for their participation and interest today in RBC and look forward to speaking again in late July. Good day.

Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, this will conclude today’s conference. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect your lines at this time, and have a wonderful day.