Stanley Black & Decker, Inc. (NYSE:SWK) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

And as a result, that’s really us seeing a continuation of current trends on the consumer side, but also likely some slowing on the pro side as you start to look at lower housing start numbers, lower repair remodel numbers year-over-year and as — and we think this year, we’ll see a negative organic performance at our base case. Now if that doesn’t play out, and the performance is stronger, you heard from Corbin that it could be two to three points better for the year, and obviously, the back half would be a better performance as well. If that played out, and then you went into 2024 with that type of momentum, there could be a case where you actually do work yourself closer back to the $7. So I think we’re probably, at this point, somewhere around $5, with it eventually having the possibility, if the volume and demand is stronger than our base case, where it could be higher than that.

Anything you want to add to that, Corbin?

Corbin Walburger: No. The only thing, Julian, maybe for your model from a pricing standpoint, we’re going to have some price carryover in the first half of a point or two, and then that obviously anniversaries out by the second half.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Tim Wojs with Baird. Your line is now open.

Tim Wojs: Yeah. Hey, good morning everybody. Thanks for all the details. Don, maybe just following on to your question, or to some of the answers from the last question. Just what are you seeing from the Pro today? And I guess, what — within the scenarios that you’ve outlined, I mean, what are you assuming that the Pro does as you work through 2023?

Don Allan: Yeah. I would actually say coming out of the gate here in 2023, it was just one month under our belt, we’re actually not seeing any slowing of the Pro. So the Pro business continues to be healthy. As we talk to our customers, they say the same thing. What we are, though, forecasting in our model is a slowing down of some of that activity. And when you look at the organic projection that we have for our Tools & Outdoor business, we expect it to slow down as we get deeper into the year and for that to continue in the back half of the year in a modest way. And so I think that’s a reasonable assumption when you give — when you start to look at things like housing starts and the projections for housing starts, repair, remodel, what our customers are saying and their expectations are around likely performance year-over-year and what you hear from many of the peers in the space as well.

I mean, everybody seems to be thinking that the market will probably be down somewhere 3% to 5%. And that’s kind of where we are with our Tools & Outdoor business. And it aligns very much with the trends you’re seeing in construction. And I think it is a good base case to start with, but as I said before, it could be better than that if the Pro doesn’t weaken as much as I just described. It also could be worse than that, which I think our downside case covers that as Corbin articulated very well in his presentation.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Nigel Coe with Wolfe Research. Your line is now open.