Alamo Group Inc. Aktie

Good day, and welcome to the Alamo Group Second Quarter 2026 Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note, this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Kevin Carter, Vice President, Strategy, Finance and Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you. By now, you should have received a copy of the press release. However, if anyone is missing a copy and would like to receive one, please contact us at 212-827-3746, and we will send you a copy of the release and make sure you're on the company's distribution list. There will be a replay of the call, which will begin 1 hour after the call and run for 1 week. The replay can be accessed by dialing 1-855-669-9658 with the passcode 750-9167. Additionally, the call is being webcast on the company's website at www.alamo-group.com, and a replay will be available for 60 days.

On the line with me today are Robert Hureau, our President and Chief Executive Officer; and Agnies Kamps, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Management will make some opening remarks, and then we will open up the line for your questions. During the call today, management may reference certain non-GAAP numbers in their remarks. Reconciliations of these non-GAAP results to applicable GAAP numbers are included in the attachment to our earnings release.

Before turning the call over to Robert, I would like to make a few comments about forward-looking statements. We will be making forward-looking statements today that are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, which may cause the company's actual results in future periods to differ materially from forecasted results.

Among those factors which could cause actual results to differ materially are the following: adverse economic conditions, which could lead to a reduction in overall market demand, supply chain disruptions, labor constraints, increasing costs due to inflation, disease outbreaks, geopolitical risks, including tariffs, trade wars and the effects of the war in Ukraine and the Middle East, competition, weather, seasonality, currency-related issues and other risk factors listed from time to time in the company's SEC reports.

The company does not undertake any obligation to update the information contained herein, which speaks only as of this date. I would like now to introduce Robert Hureau. Robert, please go ahead.

Thank you, Kevin. I'd like to thank everyone for joining our second quarter earnings conference call. We appreciate your continued interest in Alamo Group. Overall, we're pleased with the second quarter results. We made good progress across our key initiatives, highlighted by strong sales, improved adjusted earnings and solid adjusted EBITDA performance. We're encouraged by the volume, the pace and the quality of customer activity we continue to see across our business. And our teams remain focused on operational improvement and disciplined execution of our strategic priorities. I'll turn the call over to Agnies to review our financial results in detail. When she's finished, I'll come back and discuss the performance of each of our divisions and make some remarks regarding our long-term strategic priorities. Agnies?

Thank you, Robert. Good morning, everyone. Net sales for the second quarter of 2026 were $415.7 million, an increase of 7.6% compared to the second quarter of 2025. Organic net sales increased 1.3% compared to the second quarter of 2025. Gross profit for the second quarter of 2026 was $110.9 million compared to $108.3 million for the second quarter of 2025. Gross margin for the second quarter of 2026 was 24.6%, down 120 basis points compared to the second quarter of 2025.

The year-over-year decline in gross margin reflected the impact of net sales mix and investments we are making to support long-term growth, partially offset by favorable pricing, procurement savings and continued operating disciplines.

Selling, general and administrative expense or SG&A expense for the second quarter was $60.1 million, up 5.1% from the second quarter of 2025. SG&A expense in the second quarter of 2026 included acquisition and integration expenses, restructuring expenses and the addition of Petersen and Ring-O-Matic businesses. SG&A expense as a percentage of net sales in the second quarter of 2026 was 13.3% compared to 13.6% in the second quarter of 2025.

Excluding acquisition, integration and restructuring expenses in both periods, SG&A expense as a percentage of net sales was approximately 12.5% in the second quarter of 2026 and compared favorably to approximately 13.5% in the second quarter of 2025. We remain focused on the productivity of our teams, including early efforts to apply artificial intelligence across the organization.

We expect these efforts to help us manage SG&A as a percentage of net sales over time. Net interest expense for the second quarter of 2026 was $3.6 million compared to $2.5 million in the second quarter of 2025, higher year-over-year, primarily as a result of Petersen acquisition and related financing activity.

The effective income tax rate was 25.6%, in line with our current and long-term expectations. During the second quarter of 2026, we recognized $4.3 million of acquisition integration and restructuring expenses. These costs included $0.3 million of acquisition and integration expense and $4 million of restructuring expenses, which were inclusive of investments to transform our manufacturing activities and supply chain function, leadership changes and cost to consolidate and streamline certain manufacturing facilities.

Of the $4.3 million, $3.5 million was recorded in SG&A. All of these amounts are treated as adjustments to certain non-GAAP measures as shown in the press release. Adjusted EBITDA for the second quarter of 2026 was $63.9 million or 14.2% of net sales compared to $58.8 million or 14% of net sales in the second quarter of 2025. Adjusted earnings per share on a fully diluted basis for the second quarter of 2026 were $2.82, up 7.2% compared to $2.63 in the second quarter of 2025.

Now I'll share some comments regarding the results of each of the divisions. Net sales in the Industrial Equipment division for the second quarter of 2026 were $271.6 million, an increase of 12.8% compared to net sales of $240.7 million in the second quarter of 2025.

The year-over-year increase reflected organic demand and the contribution from Petersen, which was acquired earlier in 2026 as well as the contribution from Ring-O-Matic, which was acquired during 2025.

Organic net sales in the Industrial Equipment division increased 2.6% compared to the second quarter of 2025. Adjusted EBITDA in the Industrial Equipment division for the second quarter of 2026 was $45.3 million or 16.7% of net sales compared to $40.3 million or 16.8% of net sales for the second quarter in 2025. We are pleased with the continued strong performance in this division and particularly with the successful integration of our recent acquisitions.

Net sales in the Vegetation Management division for the second quarter of 2026 were $179.1 million, an increase of 0.4% compared to net sales of $178.4 million in the second quarter of 2025. Sales were relatively stable compared to the prior year despite continued pressure in certain end markets. This marks the second consecutive quarter of year-over-year growth in this division after 8 quarters of declines.

Adjusted EBITDA in the Vegetation Management division in the second quarter of 2026 was $18.6 million or 10.4% of net sales compared to $18.5 million or 10.4% of net sales for the second quarter of 2025. We remain focused on improving margins through operational execution, cost discipline and targeted actions across the portfolio.

Moving on to the balance sheet and cash flow. For the 6 months ended June 30, 2026, cash provided by operations was $22.7 million. Investing cash outflow was $171.6 million, primarily reflecting the Petersen acquisition and capital expenditures. Financing cash inflow was $37.3 million.

Looking at the last 12 months ended June 30, 2026, free cash flow, which we define as cash flow from operations less capital expenditures, was $135.3 million or 134% of net income, which continues to compare favorably to our long-term target of 100%. In May 2026, we renewed our credit facility on improved terms across the facility, extending maturity to 2031 and further strengthened our liquidity profile and financial flexibility.

The renewed facility provides $602.5 million of committed capacity, including $400 million revolving credit facility and $202.5 million term loan facility, supporting ongoing capital deployment priorities, working capital needs and long-term growth initiatives. At June 30, 2026, we had $195 million of cash and total debt was $262.7 million. We ended the quarter with strong liquidity position supported by substantial cash balances and available borrowing capacity under recently renewed credit facility.

The net leverage at quarter end was less than 1x, leaving us significant capacity to fund our capital deployment priorities. Regarding our capital allocation activities during the quarter, we paid $4.1 million in dividends, and our Board once again approved a quarterly dividend of $0.34 per share. We repurchased $9.4 million of shares under 2024 $50 million Board-approved share repurchase program or approximately 19% of total authorization. We repaid $25.9 million on the revolver, which was drawn to finance the Petersen acquisition.

All of these activities demonstrate the strength of our cash generation and a disciplined balanced approach to deploying it. As we move forward, we remain well positioned to drive growth, further strengthen operations and return value to shareholders through disciplined capital allocation. Thank you. I'll turn it back over to Robert.

Thank you, Agnies. Let me start by providing more color on the operating performance for each of our divisions. First, the Industrial Equipment division. As Agnies mentioned, net sales in the Industrial Equipment division increased by 13% during the quarter. The increase was led by our excavators and vacuum truck businesses, where sales grew despite an end market that was relatively flat. This performance reflects the strength of our brands, our close partnerships with our dealers and customers and the share gains our teams continue to drive.

Our rental business also contributed meaningfully and is on pace for a record year in both sales and adjusted EBITDA. Separately, Ring-O-Matic, which we acquired just over a year ago, is also delivering record results as the group continues to benefit from new commercial opportunities. Sweepers and Safety sales also increased, primarily reflecting the addition of Petersen. Excluding Petersen, sales in this group were relatively flat, though order activity strengthened during the quarter. Snow sales were lower year-over-year, reflecting the deliberate actions we've taken to focus on the most attractive commercial opportunities, which has meaningfully improved the profitability of this business.

Snow and roadway maintenance remains an attractive space for us, and it's an area we will continue to invest. Adjusted EBITDA margins in the Industrial Equipment division were 16.7% in the quarter, roughly unchanged from the same quarter last year. The division benefited from higher volume, ramping procurement savings and cost efficiency initiatives and the contribution from Petersen. These gains were partially offset by higher input costs, namely freight and steel and cost to streamline certain manufacturing activities. Regarding the Petersen business, we're very pleased with its financial performance through the first half of 2026 and the direction of the leadership team.

Integration efforts and the advancement of commercial and operational synergies are progressing well. Petersen's EBITDA margins are performing in line with our expectations and are benefiting from the early synergies we're capturing. We'll keep you updated as the business continues to perform.

The book-to-bill in the Industrial Equipment division for the second quarter of 2026 was 0.85x as net orders were down 2% compared to the same quarter in the prior year. Orders varied across the division. Orders were strongest in our snow business, which saw continued year-over-year growth, reflecting the strength of our team, our products and our brands. Sweepers and safety orders also grew, both on an inorganic and organic basis, meaning excluding Petersen, as we began to see the positive activity we had been anticipating with many states and municipalities entering the new budget year.

We also continue to grow this business in the contractor market, where activity and opportunity tied to data centers and other large-scale development remains attractive. Excavators and vacuum truck orders were lower, reflecting the lumpiness and timing of orders in this business and some pockets of softness in the construction markets. Regarding the lumpiness, it's important to note that the second quarter of 2025 was a record quarter for net orders for the excavator and vacuum group. It was the highest quarter in this group's history.

Lead times in all the business within the Industrial Equipment division are in good competitive position. Today, our Industrial Equipment division represents 59% of our total sales. As a reminder, the products in the Industrial Equipment division serve end markets, including public works, construction, utilities and infrastructure. These are very attractive long-cycle markets. Consistent with broader construction industry commentary, we're seeing a market that is stable but selective with the near-term rate of growth moderating after several years of double-digit growth supported by infrastructure investment. In that context, we expect certain industrial end markets to be flattish in the shorter term, but we remain very positive on the long-term outlook given the continued need for infrastructure maintenance, Public works investments, utility modernization and specialized vocational equipment.

Now the Vegetation Management division. Net sales in the Vegetation Management division were slightly higher compared to the second quarter of 2025. The overall result reflected growth in North American agriculture, Tree Care and Recycling and our European businesses, offset by lower sales in municipal mowing and South America. In North America Agriculture, sales improved, particularly in U.S. agriculture, which benefited from stronger manufacturing execution. Tree care and recycling sales also increased, similarly supported by improved manufacturing throughput. Our European businesses also grew, with particular strength in the Netherlands and France.

Adjusted EBITDA margins in the Vegetation Management division in the second quarter of 2026 were 10%. This was up significantly from the second half of 2025, reflecting the progress our teams have made in improving the efficiency of our manufacturing facilities and flat compared to the second quarter of 2025.

The adjusted EBITDA margin of 10% compared to the second quarter of 2025 reflects favorable pricing and improved operational execution offset by inflation, tariffs and unfavorable sales mix. The book-to-bill in the Vegetation Management division for the second quarter of 2026 was 0.9x, where net orders were 1% lower compared to the same quarter in the prior year, with mixed performance across businesses.

Municipal mowing orders showed strong momentum in the quarter, an encouraging sign of the improving activity among municipal customers, similar to what we're seeing in our sweepers business. Tree care and recycling orders also grew, reflecting the work our teams have done to strengthen our dealer network, including the new dealers were added in parts of the country where we had gaps.

North American agriculture orders were roughly flat year-over-year, but continued to build on a strong year-to-date order pattern and a healthy backlog. Today, our Vegetation Management division represents 41% of our total net sales. As a reminder, the products in the Vegetation Management division serve end markets, including tree care and recycling, agriculture, public works and landscape maintenance. These end markets have declined from the elevated levels experienced during the '21 and '23 period. But in the aggregate, they appear to be stabilizing in 2026.

External market commentary has similarly described farm equipment demand is cautious with pressure from lower farm income, elevated borrowing costs and tariff-related cost uncertainty. We're encouraged by the signs of stabilization and remain confident in the long-term relevance of our brands, dealer relationships and product categories, but we don't expect a rapid recovery across the entire vegetation management portfolio. I'd now like to share some comments regarding the broad framework of our long-term strategy. As mentioned before, there are 4 pillars of the strategy on which we'll focus and devote resources: one, people and culture; two, commercial excellence; three, operational excellence; and four, capital deployment.

Within each of these strategic pillars, there exists a series of prioritized initiatives on which our teams are working. We made good progress on all initiatives again during the quarter. During the past year, we said we would review our portfolio and take action on businesses or product lines that are not aligned with our long-term strategic direction. As part of that review, we recently announced our decision to exit a small business in the Netherlands that serves the waterway vegetation management market. We expect to complete that exit either through a sale or closure of the business before the end of 2026.

In addition, we're continuing our portfolio review and expect to make certain further decisions during the second half of 2026. These are not large businesses or product lines in the context of Alamo Group, but these decisions are important. They reflect our disciplined approach to capital deployment and operating performance, and they are consistent with our long-term strategy of owning and operating businesses that are leaders in their markets and strategically relevant.

Regarding capital allocation, our philosophy is disciplined and balanced. I'd like to summarize a few key important components of that strategy. First, we'll continue to invest in our people, our products, our facilities and technologies to support profitable growth and productivity with capital expenditures running at approximately 2% of net sales on average.

Second, we'll maintain a strong balance sheet, targeting net leverage of up to 2.5x, which preserves the flexibility to act opportunistically. Third, acquisitions remain a top near-term priority. As we've mentioned before, our focus is largely on tuck-ins close to our core, meaning product categories, sales channels and geographies close to where we operate today that hold leadership positions in their markets, carry attractive EBITDA margins and can be acquired at attractive multiples. Our goal is 1 to 2 of these transactions in a typical year. Petersen is a great example of what that looks like in practice.

And finally, we'll continue to return capital to shareholders in a balanced manner through opportunistic repurchases under our $50 million share buyback authorization and a quarterly dividend currently $0.34 per share per quarter that reflects our target payout ratio of approximately 15% of net income.

In summary, I'd like to express our thanks and appreciation to all our employees who work tirelessly to produce, sell and develop the very best brands of vocational trucks and mowing and tree care products in the industry. I'd also like to thank our customers and our investors for their trust and support. This concludes our prepared remarks. Operator, please open the lines for questions.

[Operator Instructions] The first question comes from Chris Moore from CJS Securities.

So maybe we will start with backlog. Now that the order patterns, lead times have been normalized, just trying to understand a little bit better how we should think about backlog moving forward. Just for example, what percentage of Alamo revenue is backlog dependent? And how quickly will the vast majority of industrial backlog turn versus the vegetation backlog?

Yes. Let me talk a little bit about this, and I'm going to mention 3 things. So when we look at orders and backlog, we're looking not only at those metrics, but as you pointed out, we're looking at lead times and we're looking at market share. And so let me talk a little bit about each of these 3, and then we can drill down further. So first, just a recap of some of the comments we tried to emphasize in the prepared remarks as it relates to orders.

We'll start with the Vegetation division. I think the most important thing in the vegetation or the most notable thing in the Vegetation business is the return to growth within our municipal mowing solutions group. So this is a group that manufactures mowing attachments. We sell to dealers who in turn sell to state DOTs and local municipalities. That business was softer in the first 6 months of the year, but it's returned to growth. We saw orders up double digits in the second quarter as we had expected as many of these municipalities shifted from one budget year to the next. So that was a really positive sign.

The U.S. ag business, as I mentioned, positive order trends. We've got a healthy backlog. Tree care, positive orders, particularly in the large industrial segment and European softish. But overall, in the aggregate, as we said, order pattern was roughly flattish on a year-over-year basis, which is consistent with where we pegged the end markets. On the industrial side, orders down 2%, as we mentioned. Here, again, the most notable thing is on the sweepers side. So on an organic basis, in our sweepers group, we saw a return to order growth, again, on a double-digit basis. for the same reason as I just commented on the municipal mowing business. Many of those products serve the local state DOTs and municipalities.

Sales were soft during the first part of the year as those municipalities shifted from one budget year to the next. That order pattern, that quoting activity has improved, up year-over-year double digit. That's another very positive sign.

And Snow continues to perform quite well. That's been a huge success story for the last 3 quarters, 4 quarters, if you will. Importantly, I want to emphasize in the in the excavation business, orders were down. But again, those orders when they come in are large and they're lumpy and the comparison in the second quarter this year to the second quarter of last year, it's a tough comparison. That Q2 '25 was a record quarter for orders for that business. So I just wanted to highlight those and emphasize certain groups within each of those divisions that really the tone has shifted in a much more positive manner.

The second part, which gets to some of your questioning is around the backlog. One of the ways we think about it is in terms of lead times. Today, in the aggregate, those lead times, if you look at our backlog and our quarterly revenue, we've got 4 to 5 months of revenue sitting in backlog in the aggregate and similarly within the Industrial division. If you skip for a minute the boom years of '23 and '24, where things were really, really strong, up 20% year-over-year, et cetera, that 4 months to 5 months of revenue and backlog is pretty consistent with where we were historically. So that's a good sign. When we talk about -- when we talk with our customers, they're pleased with the lead times right now. We're pleased with them. We feel like we're in a really good competitive position.

The last thing, the third point, I think, is really important because we look at all of these metrics in the aggregate is when we look at market share. And we can see where the data is available that many of our brands are continuing to gain from a market share perspective in both the Industrial and the Vegetation division. So all 3 of those are important when we assess where we are with backlog, how we expect it to roll out, et cetera, and the current order pattern. And in the aggregate, we feel good. We feel very excited about where things are going heading into 2027. I hope we get some of your questions.

Absolutely. Very helpful. Very helpful. Vegetation, I think you're pretty clear that longer term, certainly looks good at the end of Q1, you had kind of talked about a little bit reduction in your -- the way you're looking at it. So basically, it was flat Q2. I mean, I'm looking at the second half of the year and wondering if that's perhaps a reasonable expectation for Q3 and the Q4 comp is pretty light off of '25. Is that a reasonable way to look at it maybe in that flattish area in Q3 and perhaps we could do a little bit better than that in Q4?

Yes. Let me come at this from 2 different angles, and I'll focus predominantly on vegetation, but we can cover the industrial markets as well. So you're right. At the end of the year, we were looking at the vegetation end markets to be flattish to maybe slightly down or thereabouts. We viewed 2026 as somewhat of an improving year versus the down double digits that we had experienced. But we were calling the end markets flattish to down slightly. As we moved from the end of the year to the end of the first quarter, we got a little bit more cautious with some of the trends in the third-party data. I would say that as we sit today, the trend in that third-party data continue.

We continue to remain cautious over the balance of the year, the third and the fourth quarter. You certainly can see crop prices, farm income, housing and tractor sales in that key 40 horsepower to 100 horsepower category that's still being down. Despite that, we see really good order pattern in many of our groups within that division. But in the aggregate, I would call that end market to be flattish to down mid-single digits, somewhere in that ZIP code. Nonetheless, a remarkable swing in trajectory versus the prior 2 years to 3 years. That's the first piece I would look at. When you step back and look at the business as a whole and including the Vegetation division, when you think about our financial results sequentially, and you look at historical averages and historical seasonality, excluding any big acquisitions, the second quarter tends to be the peak quarter financially in terms of sales and earnings.

From there, as you move from the second to the third and the third to fourth, the top line and the bottom line tend to move down slightly from Q2 to Q3, Q3 to Q4. That's historical seasonality, if you will. So I think if you take the latest perspective we have on end markets and some of that historical financial patterns around seasonality and you mirror them, you get a good sense as to where the company is likely to move in the absence of an acquisition or anything major over the next 2 quarters. Now on a year-over-year basis, it will get progressively better, of course, as the fourth quarter was quite a low point in the Vegetation division. Does that help?

That is very helpful.

The next question comes from Mig Dobre from Baird.

This is Peter Calantari on for Mig this morning. Robert, I have a bit of a 2-part question here. When we think about that 18% consolidated margin target at 18%, where would we see -- where do you see margin for each division shaking out? And then Vegetation specifically, is there any way to frame the margin runway from where we're at today, call it, 10%, 11% to where you see this segment longer term? I guess my question is how much can margins improve from current levels without any sort of volume improvement? And how much of the margin progression from here would necessitate recovery across your end markets?

Yes. First thing I would say is I would continue to confirm, if you will, confidently our long-term through-the-cycle operating and adjusted EBITDA margins. So we have come out, we've said that before. The target is 15% adjusted operating income margins and 18% adjusted EBITDA margins. We're roughly about 400 basis points away from that today. Again, first thing, these are long-term through-the-cycle targets, if you will.

Now to get there, we still believe that there's 300 basis points or thereabouts directly within our control, and it's some combination of procurement savings that we're getting after as we're centralizing some of those procurement negotiating efforts. Parts and service, which we feel is a huge opportunity for us. We're a little bit underserved relative to history and benchmark and continued manufacturing operations efficiency. So those are the things we can control.

And of course, as we continue to review the portfolio, particularly in the Vegetation business and either close or sell certain very, very small product lines, that will contribute as well. Those things are within our control. I see that 300 basis point opportunity to exist within both of the industrial and the Vegetation business. So if you're looking at a 10%, 10.5% adjusted EBITDA margin in the Vegetation business, those should be able to go to 13% or 14%, similar with the Industrial business.

Now we get a little bit of volume tailwind, right? This year, the sales in the Vegetation business have been flattish. We get a little bit of volume tailwind, some support from the end markets, which we certainly expect over the next 3 years to 4 years, you're going to not only get leverage on some of that fixed cost, but the momentum builds around procurement savings and manufacturing efficiencies. So some gains to be come as the volumes and end markets recover, the majority of it within our control.

And then, of course, the cherry on the top is accretive M&A to the extent we continue to add businesses like Petersen, which run at 23%, 24% adjusted EBITDA. So we feel really good about where we're going over the next 3 years to 4 years. 2026 is a bit of a transition year. Does that help, Peter?

That was great, Robert. You kind of anticipated where I was going with my last question here on M&A. Your balance sheet is obviously in a strong spot, net leverage extremely low. What's the current pipeline looking like? Where in the portfolio might you be looking to add? Or what would be the appetite, I guess, for a larger, more transformational deal as opposed to continued bolt-ons? I'm just curious what you're seeing out there in the current deal environment and any color or update that you could provide on the acquisition strategy?

Absolutely. I think it starts with the capital allocation framework and strategy. We spent a lot of time thinking about it, tried to pull together everything concisely and share that with you on this call. And as you can tell from that with the framework where we feel very confident and comfortable going up to 2.5x net leverage, we've got a lot of dry powder. We can add a lot of earnings to this business and accelerate the growth of our earnings trajectory over the next several years. So it starts there. And again, as I said in the prepared remarks, M&A is the top priority, but we'll be opportunistic with that buyback program as we were in the second quarter.

From there, I would say the M&A pipeline is strong. If you don't know, Ed Rizzuti, has taken on a full-time role in corporate development, spearheading that, not only because of his talent and leadership, but that area is just rich with opportunity for us, and he's building a team to go after some of those targets.

Third thing I would say is from a where are we targeting perspective, we're still focusing predominantly in the industrial space. It's not necessarily because there aren't opportunities in vegetation, but we want to give that vegetation team and those businesses a little bit more time to continue to fine-tune manufacturing operations before we add any more complexity, of course, building on the momentum over the last couple of quarters there. Within the industrial space and the M&A pipeline, there are a lot of things that are active today. We're talking with a number of people and excited about it. I think for now, the primary focus will remain tuck-ins things in that $15 million, $20 million, $30 million EBITDA range probably are the sweet spot.

Might we go to something that's $40 million or $50 million? We could. And it would just really need to be a strong strategic fit with good synergies. I think anything larger than that at this time is probably unlikely. So hopefully, that color is helpful to you, Peter.

The next question comes from Mike Shlisky from D.A. Davidson.

First, a quick housekeeping question. I think I missed this, but how much was currency a factor in the year-over-year revenue change?

It wasn't that impactful, I think, I don't remember the exact number.

It's in the back of the press release, Mike, I think 0.4%.

0.4%.

Got it. Okay. Yes. I also wanted to ask about vegetation. You said it might not be up tremendously in the very near term. Are you doing anything within the segment to maybe get more aggressive or help speed things up? Anything you can do to talk with your dealer network or some internal folks to do a little bit more outreach than as opposed to reacting to the broader market here? Are there any share opportunities or new iron you can put out there to help gain some share? Just anything that you're doing beyond just kind of run in the day-to-day waves of the vegetation end market here?

Yes. I would say in the last several quarters, we've had a lot of those discussions internally and with the Board. We are hyper focused on what we refer to as alternate sources of growth. We want to maintain and continue to grow our share in the existing channels with existing dealers and partners and contractors. Yes, that's really important. We want to love those customers and continue to win with them. Many of them that we're aligned with are really strong and healthy and we'll grow with them. But at the same time, we need to and are looking at those alternate sources of growth. So there are different -- slightly different channels?

Are there product categories that we can move into. And there's things occurring in both the vegetation and the Industrial division that are pretty exciting, probably a little bit too early for us to talk about publicly. But you're spot on and the team is doing a great job thinking a little bit differently about how to go to market and win and accelerate growth beyond the movements in the end markets.

Okay. I'll ask that one on a future call perhaps. And then some of your comments around -- Robert, you've been as you've been saying you want to do 1 deal or 2 a year, excuse me. I know you had Pearson wasn't that long ago, but it was not during 2026. Curious as to what the pipeline looks like today? And do you feel confident that you'll actually get at least one deal done during 2026?

Yes. The pipeline is really full. There's a lot of activity going on. Of course, we like the ones where we're building the relationship one-on-one. We will get involved with auctions, but prefer to stay away from those, generally speaking. But there's a lot of activity. There's a lot of good relationships that our teams, our business leaders, division presidents, Ed and his team, Agnies, are fostering. We've met with many of them over the course of the last 6 months in person. I'm feeling pretty good about the direction over the balance of the year. I can't, of course, say that we will get one done for sure. There's a lot of variables that come into play, but we're pretty positive on the momentum of the M&A. And for some reason, something doesn't happen, you might see 3 in 2027 or 4. But we're pretty bullish on this, and we're going to use that dry powder that we have on the balance sheet.

[Operator Instructions] The next question comes from Greg Burns from Sidoti & Company.

Could you just give us an update on the status of the facility consolidations on the ration management business? Where do they stand? Is throughput where you think you could get it? Or is there -- are there more efficiency gains to be had there? And how should we think about that impacting the second half from a revenue and margin perspective?

Yes. I appreciate the opportunity to talk a little bit about it. So I feel really good about the progress that's been made in the last 2 quarters. Recall that we have in the Tree Care business, the Morbark and Rayco brands consolidated. And then in U.S. agriculture, we had the Bush Hog and the Rhino brands consolidate. And there was -- as you can see in the back half of 2025, a fair amount of disruption that occurred. Team has done a wonderful job getting their hands around that, getting those production lines up and efficient. I would -- the best data and evidence to point to that things have recovered nicely is the growth in those 2 groups within the second quarter. They were up nicely in terms of sales. That wasn't end market strong recovery. That was manufacturing throughput.

You can take a look at the vegetation adjusted EBITDA margins in the second quarter, they're about flat to where we were at the same time last year before a lot of that disruption took place. So I feel really good about it. We're monitoring it closely. We put in some new leadership. We've supported many of the team members that have been there for a while. So I feel really good. Now there's still more opportunity to continue to improve and drive efficiencies and continue to take costs out. But we're in a pretty good spot from where we came in the back half of 2025. Does that help?

All right. Yes, it did. And then on the industrial side, like it seems like there's good order trends or some momentum in certain areas there. How should we think about the remainder of the year from an organic perspective? Are you still thinking like flat to up a little bit? Or has your view changed on the near-term trajectory of that business from an organic perspective?

From an organic perspective, I would say flattish, consistent with the end markets, right? If you use construction as a proxy for the end market, while construction spending in the U.S. is still at a very elevated level, the year-over-year growth has flattened. It actually went a little bit negative, as I think you can see in some of the data. We're waiting for more news around further federal stimulus funds in the infrastructure space. I think some things have passed the Senate are waiting the house vice versa. Those are encouraging signs. But all in all, I would look at the industrial end markets as flattish over the back half of 2026. And then, of course, as we move beyond that, obviously, just a wonderful space, wonderful end market to be in with much mandated demand-driven activity. So bullish long term, positive short term, but flattish end markets.

The next question comes from Ross Sparenblek from William Blair.

This is Sam Karlov on for Ross. I guess starting off, I know procurement savings have been a very big focus for the team recently. Could you give an update on your progress here and maybe frame the time line for these benefits to start flowing through?

Sam, the procurement program we started earlier this year is going really well. We're very happy with it. We're organized ourselves around the commodities and other spend, and we're progressing really nicely. The savings that we're expecting will start coming in towards the end of this year, but largely next year. And this is due to just the timing of the project as well as turnover of inventory. But the project is going really well. We're happy with it. We're progressing nicely.

Got it. That's good to hear. And then a similar question here. Just curious how the aftermarket business performed in the quarter and then how you've seen some of your initiatives around the aftermarket business progress here?

Yes. During the quarter, aftermarket parts and service was good. We were up a smidge on a year-over-year basis. That was taking a little bit longer to get going, but a lot of activity to drive that around pricing and parts availability and things of that nature. So bullish that, that's going to be a strong contributor over the next couple of years in terms of improved profitability and margin profile.

This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to management for closing remarks.

Thank you. In parting, I'd like to say that Alamo Group remains a compelling long-term investment for several reasons. We serve large, attractive end markets with customer trusted brands and leadership positions, and our scale supports meaningful commercial and operational synergies. We generate strong free cash flow through the cycle and deploy it through a disciplined capital allocation framework, supported by a robust pipeline of attractive M&A opportunities.

And we have an experienced management team and nearly 4,000 employees who share a common set of values, an entrepreneurial spirit and a commitment to winning together. Again, we appreciate your support and interest in the Alamo Group and look forward to speaking with you on our next call.

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.

Good day and welcome to the Alamo Group, Inc. First Quarter 2026 Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note this event is being recorded.

I would now like to turn the conference over to Ed Rizzuti, Executive Vice President of Corporate Development and Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you. By now, you should have all received a copy of the press release. However, if anyone is missing a copy and would like to receive one, please contact us at (212) 827-3746 and we will send you a release and make sure you're on the company's distribution list. There will be a replay of the call, which will begin 1 hour after the call and run for 1 week. The replay can be accessed by dialing 1 (855) 669-9658 with the pass code 1646754. Additionally, the call is being webcast on the company's website at www.alamo-group.com and a replay will be available for 60 days.

On the line with me today are Robert Hureau, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Agnes Kamps, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Management will make some opening remarks and then we will open up the line for your questions. During the call today, management may reference certain non-GAAP numbers in their remarks. Reconciliations of these non-GAAP results to applicable GAAP numbers are included in the attachment to our earnings release.

Before turning the call over to Robert, I would like to make a few comments about forward-looking statements. We will be making forward-looking statements today that are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, which may cause the company's actual results in future periods to differ materially from forecasted results.

Among those factors which could cause actual results to differ materially are the following: adverse economic conditions, which could lead to a reduction in overall market demand, supply chain disruptions, labor constraints, competition, weather, seasonality, currency-related issues, geopolitical events and other risk factors listed from time to time in the company's SEC reports. The company does not undertake any obligation to update the information contained herein, which speaks only as of this date.

I would now like to introduce Robert Hureau. Robert, please go ahead.

Thank you, Ed. I'd like to thank everyone for joining our first quarter earnings conference call. We appreciate your continued interest in the Alamo Group. Overall, we're pleased with the first quarter financial results. We made good progress with many of our key initiatives. In particular, the Vegetation Management division reported solid improvement in terms of both sales and profitability.

I'll turn the call over to Agnes to review our financial results in detail. When she's finished, I'll come back and discuss the performance of each of our divisions and make some remarks regarding our long-term strategic priorities. Agnes?

Thank you, Robert. Good morning, everyone. Net sales for the first quarter of 2026 were $417.1 million, an increase of 6.7% compared to the first quarter of 2025. Gross profit for the first quarter of 2026 was $104.8 million compared to $102.8 million for the first quarter of 2025. Gross margin for the first quarter of 2026 was 25.1%, down 118 basis points compared to the first quarter of 2025. The year-over-year decline was primarily driven by Vegetation Management division reflecting lower net sales in our municipal mowing business and certain manufacturing facilities, which are continuing to ramp up in terms of efficient throughput.

Importantly, Vegetation Management margins improved meaningfully on a sequential basis as we exited the quarter reflecting operational progress in both facilities. While there's still work to be done, we are encouraged by the traction we are seeing and expect continued improvement as the year progresses. Selling, general and administrative expense or SG&A expense for the first quarter was $57.8 million, up 6.3% from the first quarter of 2025. SG&A expense in the first quarter of 2026 included approximately $3.5 million related to acquisition and integration costs, restructuring costs and the addition of Petersen and Ring-O-Matic acquisitions.

SG&A expense, as a percentage of net sales in the first quarter of 2026, was 13.8% compared to 13.9% in the first quarter of 2025. Net interest expense for the first quarter of 2026 was $3.1 million compared to $2 million in the first quarter of 2025, higher year-over-year as a result of Petersen acquisition. The effective income tax rate was 25.3%, in line with our current and longer-term expectations. During the first quarter of 2026, we recognized $2.5 million of acquisition, integration and restructuring expenses. These costs included $0.6 million primarily related to acquisition and integration of Petersen Industries and $1.9 million in restructuring expenses.

Approximately $1.6 million of this cost was recorded in SG&A and $0.9 million in cost of sales. All of these amounts are treated as adjustments for certain non-GAAP measures as shown in the press release. Adjusted EBITDA for the first quarter of 2026 was $59.3 million or 14.2% of net sales compared to $58.3 million or 14.9% of net sales in the first quarter of 2025. On a sequential basis, adjusted EBITDA improved significantly from the fourth quarter of 2025 when it totaled $44.8 million or 12% of net sales. Adjusted earnings per share on a fully diluted basis for the first quarter of 2026 were $2.56 compared to $2.70 for the first quarter of 2025 and compared to $1.70 for the fourth quarter of 2025.

Now I'll share some comments regarding the results of each of the divisions. Net sales in the Industrial Equipment division for the first quarter of 2026 were $241.7 million, an increase of 6.5% compared to net sales of $227.1 million in the first quarter of 2025. Excluding acquisitions, net sales declined $2.4 million or 1% compared to the first quarter of 2025 largely due to timing of orders in our snow group. Adjusted EBITDA in the Industrial Equipment division for the first quarter of 2026 was $39.7 million or 16.4% of net sales compared to $37.4 million or 16.5% of net sales for the first quarter of 2025. We are pleased with the continued strong performance in this division and particularly with the successful integration of Petersen acquisition.

Net sales in Vegetation Management division for the first quarter of 2026 were $175.4 million, an increase of 7% compared to net sales of $163.9 million in the first quarter of 2025. The increase is a result of operational improvement in our facilities and modest support from the agricultural end market offsetting weakness in municipal mowing. Adjusted EBITDA in the Vegetation Management division for the first quarter in 2026 was $19.6 million or 11.2% of net sales compared to $20.8 million or 12.7% of net sales for the first quarter of 2025.

Moving on to the balance sheet and cash flow. Cash provided by operating activities for the first quarter of 2026 was negative $23.5 million due to strong sequential growth especially in the Vegetation Management division where the net sales increased by $36.7 million or 26.4% in the first quarter of 2026 compared to the fourth quarter of 2025. The operating cash flow on the last 12-month basis was $139.8 million or 138.2% of net income. Cash used in investing activities for the first quarter of 2026 was $169.8 million and reflects cash used for the acquisition of Petersen Industries in January 2026 and $4.5 million used for capital expenditures.

We funded Petersen acquisition with $120 million draw on our revolver and approximately $50 million cash on hand. We're excited about the acquisition of Petersen given its leadership position, attractive margins and commercial synergies. As of March 31, 2026, our gross debt was $290.5 million and we had $195.2 million in cash on the balance sheet resulting in net leverage ratio of less than 1x. Total liquidity remains very strong, positioning the company well to continue pursuing disciplined M&A opportunities.

To conclude, I would like to emphasize our commitment to delivering long-term value to our shareholders. We are pleased that our Board has approved a quarterly dividend of $0.34 per share. As we move forward, we remain focused on driving growth and optimization of our operations.

Thank you. I'll turn it back over to Robert.

Thank you, Agnes. Let me start by providing more color on the operating performance for each of our divisions. First, the Industrial Equipment division. As Agnes mentioned, net sales in the Industrial Equipment division increased by about 7% during the quarter. The increase in net sales during the quarter was driven primarily by our acquisitions, including the Petersen acquisition, which closed earlier in this first quarter and Ring-O-Matic acquisition, which closed during the middle of 2025. Net sales in our excavator and vacuum business performed well during the quarter.

Net sales in our sweeper and safety business, excluding the effects of the Petersen acquisition, were flattish. And net sales in our snow business declined compared to the prior year. The decline in net sales in the snow business, as we've discussed, was due to the change in our sales strategy and our placing more emphasis on the quality of its earnings. We believe this strategy is and will continue to prove successful. As for profitability, the adjusted EBITDA margins in the Industrial Equipment division in the quarter were good at around 16%.

This was roughly level to the adjusted EBITDA margins in the same quarter in the prior year and reflects positive pricing, procurement savings and the inclusion of the Petersen business given its above-average margin profile partially offset by material inflation, including tariffs and various investments we're making in the division to support long-term growth. As for the Petersen business, although it's still early, we're very pleased with the initial financial results, the integration activities, the leadership team and the progress related to both the commercial and operational synergies.

We'll keep you posted on the performance of this acquisition as it continues to evolve. The book-to-bill in the Industrial Equipment division for the first quarter of 2026 was around 1x. Net orders for the Industrial Equipment division during the first quarter of 2026 were down 11% compared to the prior year. Net orders in the snow business were robust, up double digit year-over-year again this quarter. This strength reflects the continued end market demand and the strength of our brands, commercial organization and our customer partners.

Net orders in the excavation and vacuum business were down. Within the excavation and vacuum business, we're seeing strong order growth in the European markets, which bodes well for our expanded manufacturing facility in France, with softer activity in the U.S. Net orders in our sweeper and safety business, excluding the newly acquired Petersen business, were down but reflect an unusually large multiyear order in the first quarter of 2025 making comparability challenging. Lead times in all the businesses within the Industrial Equipment division are in a good competitive position.

Today, our Industrial Equipment division represents 58% of our total net sales. As a reminder, the products in the Industrial Equipment division serve end markets, including public works, utilities, infrastructure and construction. These are very attractive long-cycle markets. As I mentioned during our last call, net sales in this division and its end markets have been very robust, growing in the high teens over the past few years and were fueled in part by various government-driven investments in infrastructure.

Looking forward, we expect the rate of growth in several of these end markets to slow in 2026 as the near-term effect of those prior external investments and the overall rate of construction spending slows before normalizing and then returning to steady long-term growth.

Now the Vegetation Management division. Net sales in the Vegetation Management division increased 7% compared to the first quarter of 2025. This is the first year-over-year increase in quarterly net sales in the Vegetation Management division in 9 quarters. This is a very positive development and it is another data point indicating certain end markets might be settling. The 7% increase in net sales was due to several factors including the ramping of our production activities in certain key manufacturing facilities, the improvement in underlying demand in certain end markets and favorable pricing partially offset by continued weakness in other end markets.

Net sales in our North American ag business were positive reflecting a slightly more constructive end market and ramping manufacturing activity. Net sales in our tree care business were also positive. Performance in the North American portion of this business reflect improved manufacturing efficiencies not necessarily a recovery in the end markets. On the other hand, performance in the European markets reflect improving end market demand and overall strong commercial and operational performance by that team.

Net sales in our municipal mowing business were down in the first quarter of 2026 reflecting continued cautiousness we're experiencing with dealers and the related state DOT offices that use our products as they navigate their fiscal budgets. As for profitability, the adjusted EBITDA margins in the Vegetation Management division in the first quarter of 2026 were about 11%. This is up significantly from the second half of 2025 and just shy of the margins in the first quarter of 2025. This is a positive development.

The adjusted EBITDA margins of 11% compared to the first quarter of 2025 reflect volume leverage and favorable pricing offset by material inflation including tariffs and various investments we're making to support long-term growth. While there's much more work to be done, we're pleased with the margin progression during the quarter. The book-to-bill in the Vegetation Management division for the first quarter of 2026 was 1x. Net orders for the total division during the first quarter of 2026 were up 5% compared to the prior year.

Net orders in the North American and European ag businesses were strong. Net orders in tree care were soft reflecting the state of those end markets including the U.S. housing market, which remains weak. And net orders in municipal mowing were down for the reasons I previously highlighted. Today, our Vegetation Management division represents 42% of our total net sales. As a reminder, the products in the Vegetation Management division serve end markets, including tree care and recycling, agriculture, public works and landscape maintenance.

As I mentioned on our last call, net sales in this division and its end markets have declined over the past few years rolling over a period of significant growth that occurred between 2021 and 2023. Looking forward, we expect the rate of decline in the end markets to slow. While we're pleased with the improvement in net sales in the Vegetation Management division during the quarter, we would not necessarily expect the end markets to support this level of year-over-year growth over the balance of the year.

I'd now like to share some comments regarding the broad framework of our long-term strategy. As mentioned before, there are 4 pillars of the strategy, which will focus into both resources: first, people and culture; second, commercial excellence; third, operational excellence; and fourth, capital deployment. Within each of these strategic pillars, there exists a series of prioritized initiatives on which our teams are working. We made good progress on all initiatives during the quarter. Today, I'd like to provide an update on our product innovation activities.

Over the past 2 calls, we highlighted a few exciting new products. As a reminder, these included: first, our new non-CDL vacuum truck that can be purpose-built as a hydro excavator or a sewer combo cleaner providing greater appeal in the urban and rental applications due to its compact size and the operator not needing to hold a commercial driver's license. This product was engineered for efficient manufacturing and economical international shipping. Interestingly, this product is already sold out in 2026.

And second, our next-generation hybrid sweepers that run on diesel, CNG or electric chassis globally and use a proprietary electric sweeping architecture delivering superior efficiency, safety and performance. We have a smaller NiteHawk hybrid air sweeper that's already in commercial production and generating significant customer interest. And we have a larger Schwarze hybrid mechanical sweeper that is smashing performance standards in testing in advance of a commercial launch in the second half of 2026. Operators love these products.

Today, I'd like to highlight our new Wide Wing System introduced by our snow business. This innovative snow plow operates an extendable side wing system attached to a tri-drive chassis offering a clearing capacity up to 27 feet, which is roughly 80% greater than standard large plows. This dramatically improved productivity, lowered total cost of ownership and increased operational flexibility is a game changer for state DOTs and road maintenance contractors. In addition, its technology is patent protected in both the United States and Canada demonstrating once again our first-mover advantage.

This product is quickly becoming the industry standard in the heavy-duty category and will eventually obsolete the traditional tow plow approach to snow removal. We highlight this and the other products today not necessarily to support or help you forecast what sales might be in coming quarters, but simply to provide color around and share a vision regarding how Alamo Group and all our wonderful brands will revolutionize the vocational truck and land maintenance segments through our engineering expertise, adaptive technologies and entrepreneurial culture over the next 3 to 5 years. Much more to come in future calls.

In summary, I'd like to express our thanks and appreciation to all our employees who work tirelessly to produce, sell and develop the very best brands of vocational trucks and mowing and tree care products in the industry. I'd also like to thank our customers and our investors for their trust and support.

This concludes our prepared remarks. Operator, please open the lines for questions.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Chris Moore of CJS Securities.

Maybe we can start on the Industrial side. So Industrial organic growth declined 1% in Q1. You said book-to-bill was about 1. I guess the question is what are the puts and takes to doing that 5% organic growth for Industrial in '26?

Yes. I think maybe we can start with net sales expectations and then move into end markets and orders. Overall, Chris, I think as we said in the past when we take a look at the industrial business and we look out over the course of the year, we think the year is likely to be excluding acquisitions kind of a flattish year, anywhere between flattish to up very low single digits and then acquisitions on top of that. The basis in part for that is as we reflect over the last several years as we mentioned a number of times, really extraordinary growth over the past few years; 17%, 18%, 19% year-over-year growth for nearly 8 quarters in a row.

We simply think it's going to be really difficult to keep that pace. Although we think the markets are constructive and healthy, that order pattern is going to slow in 2026 and that's going to result in roughly flattish net sales over the course of the year and then of course adding acquisitions on to that. We think the end markets are really constructive long term. This is a place we're going to continue to invest particularly around M&A. We like the end markets. It's just that this year is going to be a little bit of a transition year coming off the robust highs of the prior 2 years, if you will.

Got it. Very helpful. And maybe just 1 on Vegetation. So it sounds like some of the challenges in the plant consolidation, you could see significant improvement as the quarter ended. Just trying to get a feel for how we should be thinking about Vegetation operating margins for the balance of '26.

Yes. So the first comment would be or the first response to that would be that we made really good progress during the quarter. We're not where we want to be. The margin profile and the sales performance in the quarter were roughly in line with expectation. We've done well. We've got more work to do to get those margins where we want. But generally speaking, we were fairly pleased with those overall results. With respect to the Vegetation business and as we think about it long term, kind of conversely to what I said about the Industrial division, the Vegetation business has been declining for the last few years having come off those really highs of '21 and '22.

We think that rate of decline is going to slow over the course of 2026. That's likely to put us in a place where over the course of 2026, Vegetation end markets are flattish, maybe still down a little bit; but definitely sequentially improving, if you will. Versus where we were a few months ago when we last talked, I would say we're a bit more cautious on Vegetation despite the good quarter, despite the 7% year-over-year growth. And for that, we point to some of the third-party data that's out there certainly with respect to inflation. We know fertilizer cost is rising. Those input costs at farmers and ag are rising. Freight is rising.

We've seen retail tractor sales in that 40 to 100 horsepower range decline for the last few months. So while we still think 2026 is a stabilizing year, I would say that we're a bit more cautious today than we were a few months as we look out. Nonetheless, pleased with good performance during the quarter and expect continued margin progression as we move forward over the course of 2026.

Very helpful. I was going to ask you about inflation and interest rates on Vegetation. You answered it already so I will leave it there. I really appreciate it.

Our next question comes from Mike Shlisky of D.A. Davidson.

I want to start off on the snow business. I think your comments, Agnes, were about delayed orders and you've been kind of rolling out a single-family of brand strategy, if you will, or that's what it seems like in the marketplace as Alamo snow in general as opposed to Tenco and Henke separately. Are the delayed orders due to the changeover in strategy or are there budget release or something else? I guess I'm kind of wondering if your comments, Agnes, and your comments, Robert, are related to each other.

Well, we'll step back and we'll cover a couple of pieces here on snow just to make sure we're aligned on some of the things we've said. The first comment again is just to remind everybody that the year-over-year sales decline in the snow group, if you will, is really a function of us not chasing every last single dollar of sales. In the past we would do so even if that meant outsourcing the upfitting then drives a much lower margin profile and so we've deliberately stopped that. We're being a bit more selective on the orders we take, if you will. The order pattern is good, it's strong, it's growing, it's healthy. Importantly, our lead times are in a good competitive spot.

We actually think we're in a much better position in terms of lead times relative to our competitors and so that kind of gives us confidence that this strategy is still the right strategy. And so what you're going to see as a result is top line pressure year-over-year not a tremendous amount, but you're going to see top line pressure, but we'll at the same time see improved profitability over the course of the year. Again, the robust order pattern really speaks to the health of the brand, the innovation, the commercial team, the end market demand. Again the lead times are better positioned we feel than our competition and so we're not concerned about the growing backlog in that business. Does that help, Mike?

Yes. I guess I also just wondering about operationally your sales strategy has changed it seems and how that was going?

Yes, it's working well. I mean I think we're not going to share the level of granularity here in the call. But when you look at the profitability of that business, it's definitively moving in the right direction and we're pretty pleased with that.

Mike, maybe if I could add just the reference that I had made about timing of orders. I mentioned that revenue was down due to timing of orders, but that just means when those orders are placed and revenue recognized. The order intake is actually very strong in our snow business.

Got it. Outstanding. Just also want to move on to Vegetation quickly as well. Was there -- in the first quarter, I think you mentioned you were getting production ramped up. If I'm wrong, correct me there. But just give us a sense as to the overall dealership inventory levels in that business. Did you increase throughput to meet inventory demand or end user demand in the quarter?

Yes. I would say that overall, speaking broadly, the inventory in the dealer channel is in a reasonably good spot. In the ag business, it's fairly low. In the tree care space, it's reasonable. In municipal mowing, it's low and in the European markets, it's in a reasonable position. So we feel good about that. We have in the U.S. ag business strong orders. We've had strong orders now for several quarters and that's continuing. The ramping of production in both the U.S. ag business and the tree care business really reflect the ramping of the manufacturing efficiencies which, as you know, we struggled with during the third and fourth quarter, therefore delivering orders that were in backlog, if you will. But at the same time, continuing to refill that backlog with robust order patterns.

So the comments we made in the prepared remarks, I would say the end markets are still very -- moving in a very positive manner for U.S. ag and Europe ag, but the sales were driven in part by delivering on those orders that we had from prior quarters. Something similar with the tree care space although I would say that there really isn't a recovery yet in the end markets in the tree care space. We drove positive sales performance in tree care because the team there -- the new team there really drove that the manufacturing productivity improvement and throughput during the quarter and we're pleased with that. That will be very helpful as we continue over the balance of the year.

The next question comes from Mig Dobre of Baird.

It's Joe Grabowski on for Mig this morning. So I wanted to start off asking about Petersen. You've owned it for about 90 days and you talked a little bit about it in your prepared remarks. But maybe just flesh out any early impressions you have and how the integration is proceeding and maybe any updated thoughts on the commercial and operational synergies you see.

Yes. Overall, really pleased and impressed with the team at Petersen. I think as you may know as we may have mentioned as the founders exited the business, we put in a leader from our group; somebody who's very strong, very familiar with that business. The integration of that leader and the team has been really positive, smooth. The culture is strong. We've been working on the back end of the business, the systems, things of that nature. That has all gone well. Initial impressions now having owned it for a few months as we look at the commercial opportunities and the operational opportunities, I would say 2 thumbs up.

We know where there are commercial opportunities meaning dealers particularly on the West Coast of the United States where we have presence, but Petersen doesn't where we think there's an opportunity to roll those products out. As we said, we're making investments certainly on the commercial side to drive those sales to capture that share. So we're really enthusiastic about that. And we also see and have validated the operational synergies, particularly around chassis and what we can do there, leveraging the broader Alamo purchasing power, if you will. So overall, really pleased, no hiccups, should be a good year for us.

All right. That sounds great. And then my last question, you mentioned tariff impacts a couple of times. Obviously tariff levels and calculations have been moving around a lot lately. Any change in your outlook for the impact from tariffs maybe versus where we were last quarter?

No, not really. A few things maybe just to highlight for folks. On a year-over-year basis of course no tariffs in Q1 of 2025. They're in there in our operating results in Q1 of 2026. So on a year-over-year basis, that would have been a margin headwind. We've also said that in the aggregate on a 12-month basis, tariffs should generally be running somewhere slightly short of 1% of sales, if you will, something in that zip code.

We've done the math and we've looked at what the impact of the IEA tariffs rolling off and the new ones coming in. We think generally we're in about the same spot. But by business unit, depending on where the country of manufacturing is, we might see some differences now with the new rules by business unit and between divisions generally. But overall, the overarching theme is we're still in about that same spot at 0.8% or 0.9%, something like that as a percentage of sales.

[Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from Greg Burns of Sidoti & Company.

So I just wanted to kind of little better understand the positive revenue and order trends you've seen in recent quarters around ag versus your more cautious outlook maybe given some of the macro data points you're seeing. Are you seeing it anywhere in your -- that caution, are you seeing it anywhere in your business yet or is it just looking at the market and assuming maybe there could be a little bit more caution amongst dealers and end customers given what you're seeing in the future?

Yes. I would say there wasn't a lot of impact in the first quarter that we experienced in our financial results. I would say that we're starting to see higher levels of freight costs from the rise in fuel costs, et cetera. We are looking at a number of third-party data that would suggest things might be a little bit more negative than where we were 2, 3 months ago prior to the war. The other internal data point would be as we speak with customers, those conversations would validate that a slightly more cautious tone at this point is warranted. Now that said, we still see really robust year-over-year order growth in the North American ag business and in the European ag business. Just the tone is changing slow here over the course of the last 30 days or thereabouts and so really just cautious. That's all.

Okay. When we look at your longer-term consolidated margin targets that you laid out a couple of quarters ago, obviously volume will benefit there and the integration of some of the more recent acquisitions. But can you maybe outline some of the other maybe internal initiatives that you're putting in place to bridge the gap from where you are now in terms of maybe EBITDA margins versus what those -- where your kind of medium-range goals are?

Yes, definitely. So let me back up and remind everyone of what some of those goals were and how we intend to get there and then, Greg, just point us in the direction where you want to drill down deeper. So we have said that long term through the cycle, we have a number of financial objectives and targets. That is 10% plus growth in terms of sales, 15% adjusted operating margins, 18% plus adjusted EBITDA margins and free cash flow as a percentage of net income of 100%. Today, I would say as we think about where we are and the initiatives that we have over the next several years, those financial targets are still intact.

We still have a high degree of confidence of getting there. It does importantly require a recovery in the Vegetation end markets. As we've said, we're starting to see that. Things are moving in the right direction. First quarter was a very positive sign of that. We've also outlined those 4 strategic pillars: culture and engagement, commercial, operational and capital deployment. Within commercial and operational, there are 3 things that we think will help drive 300 basis points or thereabouts improvement in the operating and adjusted EBITDA margins, if you will. And for simplicity's sake, you can say equal weight between the 3.

Procurement savings, we've launched a company-wide project. That is well under -- Phase 1 is well underway. In fact the work that's being done not only is it validating what we think is out there, but there appears to be some upside. So the procurement initiative is a big and important one. Secondly, we expect continued investment in our manufacturing, our lean team, our continuous improvement team to drive manufacturing efficiencies, some robotics and automation added on where we need, upgrading technologies within the plants and continued manufacturing footprint optimization. We think long term there's another 100 basis points there.

And then the third one that falls within the commercial pillar is around parts and sales. We ran in 2025 somewhere in the neighborhood of 16% of sales. We believe we are underweight. We know we're down on a year from prior years. We think there's good opportunity there. A simple 200 basis point to 300 basis point improvement of that overall mix should drive 100 basis points of margin improvement. That project is just getting started. We're making the investments. We're working with the business units to get that going. That's a longer-term project. But all 3 of those we think are the foundation for driving margin improvement over the next several years.

One caution I would put there is on the procurement side. Given the level of inventory, we don't really expect to see much improvement until the latter part of 2026. We need to burn through that inventory, which the business units are doing. So those are some of the drivers that get us to those 15% and 18%. The gap, if you will, if you're doing the math quickly and based on what I said; the gap really is the recovery in the Vegetation business. We ran 11% adjusted EBITDA margins in the quarter. We need to get that 200 basis points or 300 basis points up more, which we think will come as that Vegetation division and its end markets settle and begin to grow again.

We think it's very achievable. We're very encouraged with the progress that we're making so far. And perhaps the last thing I would say, all of that is underpinned by creating a wonderful place for the nearly 4,000 employees here at Alamo Group to work and that speaks to the culture and engagement pillar that I alluded to. That was a long-winded answer, sorry about that. But hopefully, it provides the color you're looking for.

Perfect. That's exactly what I was hoping for. Thank you for that and good luck.

This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to management for any closing remarks.

Thank you. Again we appreciate your support and interest in the Alamo Group and look forward to speaking with you on our next call.

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.

Good morning, and welcome to the Alamo Group Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2025 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions].

Please note, this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Edward Rizzuti, Executive Vice President, Corporate Development and Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you. By now you should have all received a copy of the press release. However, if anyone is missing a copy and would like to receive one, please contact us at (212) 827-3746, and we will send you a release and make sure you're on the company's distribution list. There will be a replay of the call, which will begin 1 hour after the call and run for 1 week.

The replay can be accessed by dialing 1 (855) 669-9658 with the pass code 4809758. Additionally, the call is being webcast on the company's website at www.almo-group.com, and a replay will be available for 60 days. On the line with me today are Robert Hureau, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Agnes Kamps, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Management will make some opening remarks, and then we will open up the line for your questions.

During the call today, management may reference certain non-GAAP numbers in their remarks. Reconciliations of these non-GAAP results to applicable GAAP numbers are included in the attachments to our earnings release. Before turning the call over to Robert, I would like to make a few comments about forward-looking statements. We will be making forward-looking statements today that are made pursuant to the safe harbor visions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.

Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties and which may cause the company's actual results in future periods to differ materially from forecasted results. Among those factors which could cause actual results to differ materially are the following: adverse economic conditions, which could lead to a reduction in overall demand, supply chain disruptions, labor constraints, competition, weather, seasonality, and currency-related issues, geopolitical events and other risk factors listed from time to time in the company's SEC reports. The company does not undertake any obligation to update the information contained herein, which speaks only as of this date.

I would now like to introduce Robert Hureau. Robert, please go ahead.

Thank you, Ed. I'd like to thank everyone for joining our fourth quarter earnings conference call. We appreciate your continued interest in the Alamo Group. Before we get started, I'd like to share a few thoughts. As you know, the fourth quarter was the first full quarter during which I've been at the helm at the Alamo Group.

During this time, I've had an opportunity to visit some of our manufacturing facilities, speak with our customers, suppliers, partners, investors and interact with our employees. [indiscernible] from everyone has been incredibly valuable. In addition, during this period, the leadership team and I have been working together to develop a set of strategic initiatives designed to grow the business and a framework by which we'll operate. [indiscernible]

about where we expect to take this company over the next 3 to 5 years than it was when I joined just a short time ago. I'll turn the call over to Agnes to review our initial results in detail. when she's finished, I'll come back and discuss the performance of each of our divisions, highlight some of the key initiatives which are underway and summarize a few of our long-term goals. Agnes?

Thank you, Robert. Net sales for the fourth quarter of 2025 were $373.7 million, down 3% compared to the fourth quarter of 2024. Gross profit for the fourth quarter of 2025 was $85 million compared to $91.8 million for the fourth quarter of 2024. Gross margin for the fourth quarter of 2025 was 22.7%, down 110 basis points compared to the fourth quarter of 2024. The degradation in gross margin were due to a few reasons, including inverse leverage on the low [indiscernible] management division volumes charges related to inventory reserves taken during the quarter and certain vegetation management division product lines that we intend to divest or discontinue and the impact from tariff costs partially offset by pricing and disciplined margin management in our Industrial Equipment division.

Selling, general and administrative expense or SG&A expense for the fourth quarter of 2025 was $58.3 million, up [ 9.3% ] from the fourth quarter of 2024. The SG&A expense in the fourth quarter of 2025 included approximately $3.2 million related to acquisition and integration costs, restructuring costs and the addition of [indiscernible].

Net interest expense for the fourth quarter of 2025 was $2.5 million compared to $2.7 million in the fourth quarter of 2024. For the full fiscal year 2025, our effective income tax rate was 25.6%, which was higher than the effective income tax rate for the full year 2024. However, the 2025 effective tax rate is in line with our current and longer-term expectations.

During the fourth quarter of 2025, we recognized expenses related to acquisition integration activities of $1.6 million. Most of these costs were related to the acquisition of [indiscernible] Industries. In addition, we recognized $7.3 million in restructuring expenses. Both acquisition and integration expenses and the restructuring expenses will be treated as adjustments for certain non-GAAP measures as shown in the press release.

Adjusted EBITDA for the fourth quarter of 2025 was $44.8 million or 12% of [indiscernible] or 13.4% of net sales for the fourth quarter of 2024. Adjusted earnings per share on a fully diluted basis for the fourth quarter of 2025 was $1.70 compared to $2.39 for the fourth quarter of 2024. Now I'll share some comments regarding the results for each of the divisions. Net sales in the Industrial Equipment division for the fourth quarter of 2025 were $234.9 million, an increase of 4.2% compared to the fourth quarter of 2024.

Adjusted EBITDA for the Industrial Equipment division for the fourth quarter of 2025 was $41.5 million or 17.7% of net sales compared to $35.5 million or 15.7% of net sales for the fourth quarter of 2024. We are pleased with the continued strong performance particularly with the adjusted EBITDA margins in the Industrial Equipment division. The performance in this division demonstrates the attractiveness of our vocational truck related end markets in which we have great leadership positions. Net sales for the vegetation management division for the fourth quarter of 2025 were $138.7 million, a decrease of 13.2% compared to the fourth quarter of 2024. The decrease in the net sales reflects weakness in certain end markets, particularly Tricare and municipal mowing. Adjusted EBITDA for the vegetation management division for the fourth quarter of 2025 was $3.2 million or 2.3% of net sales compared to $16.3 million or 10.2% of net sales for the fourth quarter of 2024.

The adjusted EBITDA margins in the vegetation management division were low this quarter due to inverse leverage on both fixed manufacturing costs and SG&A expenses from the lower volumes. Moving on to the balance sheet and cash flow. Caregivided by operating activities for the fiscal year 2025 was $177.5 million compared to $209.8 million for the fiscal year 2024. The operating cash flow of $177.5 million reflects distant management of accounts receivable and accounts payable will make improvements on days sales outstanding and days payables outstanding.

The operating cash flow also reflects uses of cash for inventory, which will be our intensified focus in 2026. Our free cash flow conversion for the full fiscal year 2025 was robust at 142% of net income. Cash used in investing activities for the fiscal year 2025 was $46.2 million and reflects cash used for the acquisition of RingoMadic and $30.6 million used for capital expenditures. The increase in capital expenditure compared to the same period in prior year was due to expansion of our manufacturing facility in Industrial Equipment division. We are excited about opening of this new facility as it enables growth and improved operations in Western Europe.

Cash yield in financing activities for the fiscal year 2025 was $30.8 million reflecting repayments of principal on our long-term debt and dividends paid. As of December 31, 2025, our gross debt was $205.7 million, in addition, as of December 31, 2025, we had $309.7 million in cash on the balance sheet. In January 2026, we closed on the acquisition of Peterson Industries. We funded this acquisition with a $120 million draw on our revolver and approximately $50 million cash on hand.

Subsequent to the closing of the acquisition, total availability under our credit facility was $477 million, including Gordian and pro forma net leverage remains quite low. We're excited about the acquisition of Petersen, given its leadership mission, attractive margins and commercial synergies. To conclude, I would like to emphasize our commitment to delivering long-term value to our shareholders. We are pleased that our Board has approved $0.04 per share or 13.3% increase in our quarterly dividend to $0.34 per share. As we move forward, we remain focused on driving growth and optimization of our operations.

Thank you. I'll turn it back over to Robert.

Thank you, Agnes. We start by providing more color on the operating performance for each of our divisions. First, the Industrial Equipment division. As Agnes mentioned, net sales in the Industrial Equipment division increased by 4% during the quarter. The increase in net sales during the quarter was due to several factors, including favorable pricing net sales from the acquired Ringomatic business, which closed in the second quarter of the year and continued market share gains in several of our businesses, partially offset by a decrease in sales in our snow business. .

The decrease in net sales in our snow business reflects a comparison to an unusually strong fourth quarter of 2024, where we recognized 1 large single order in the Canadian market. While the snow business can be lumpy from quarter-to-quarter, there's real positive momentum in many aspects of this business, which we're excited about. Net sales in both our excavator and vacuum business and our Sweeper and Safety business performed well during the quarter. These businesses continued to deliver double-digit year-over-year net sales growth. In addition, in the Industrial Equipment division -- sorry, the Industrial Equipment division expanded its adjusted EBITDA margins in both the fourth quarter and the full year.

The book bill in the Industrial Equipment division for the fourth quarter of 2025 was 0.85x. Net orders during the fourth quarter of 2025 were up 21% compared to the prior year. Net orders in the excavator and back business, Suites and Safety business and snow business were all up year-over-year. Lead times in all the businesses within the Industrial Equipment division we're in a good competitive position. Today, our Industrial Equipment division represents 59% of our total net sales. As a reminder, the products in this -- in the Industrial Equipment division serve end markets, including public works, utilities infrastructure and construction.

These are attractive long-cycle markets. As I mentioned during our last call, net sales in this division and its end markets have been very robust over the past few years fueled in part by various government-driven investments. Looking forward, we expect the rate of growth in these end markets to slow as the near-term effect of those prior external investments slows down. Overall, 2025 was a very strong year for our Industrial division, and we're looking forward to continuing to grow this business, both organically and inorganically. Now the vegetation management division. Net sales in the vegetation management division declined by 13% due to several factors, including a decline in certain end markets and not ramping production volumes quickly enough in a few businesses that underwent the manufacturing consolidation activity, partially offset by favorable pricing.

The end market was most notable in our tree care and recycling business. Recall that a portion of our tree care and recycling business involved in a manufacturing sale of very large and very expensive equipment used in land clearing operations and is partially tied to housing starts, which remains suppressed. On the other hand, and importantly, net sales in our U.S. agriculture business increased year-over-year in the fourth quarter. This was the first quarter in 8 quarters where net sales in this business turned positive, a very encouraging sign looking forward. Regarding the production inefficiencies in the 2 facilities that underwent consolidation making progress, we see the progress in the various underlying KPIs, but not yet in the financial results. We currently expect the work to continue through the remainder of the first quarter and into the second quarter before the facilities are running as designed and better aligned to the end market demand. The book-to-bill in the vegetation management division for the fourth quarter of 2025 was 1.1x.

Net orders for the total division during the fourth quarter of 25 were down 3% compared to the prior year. Net orders in the U.S. and European agricultural businesses were up year-over-year, while net orders in the other businesses were down year-over-year. Today, our vegetation management division represents 41% of total net sales. As a reminder, the products in the vegetation management division serve end markets, including tree care and recycling, agriculture public works and land maintenance.

As I mentioned on our last call, net sales in this division and its end markets have declined over the past few years, rolling over a period of significant growth that occurred between 2021 and in 2023. Looking forward, we expect the rate of decline in the end markets to improve and stabilize before returning to growth. In addition, inventory in the channel remains healthy. We're seeing pockets of increased quoting activity in the first quarter in certain businesses within the vegetation management division. This is also a positive sign potentially pointing to a more stable 2026. Overall, we have much more work to do in the vegetation management division. We're confident we'll improve the manufacturing efficiencies and drive margin improvement as originally planned.

I'd now like to share some comments regarding the broad framework of our long-term strategy. As mentioned before, there are 4 pillars of the strategy in which we'll focus and devote resources. One, people and culture, two, commercial excellence; three, operational excellence; and four, capital deployment. Examples of the types of steps we're taking related to 1 or more of these 4 strategic pillars I just mentioned include the following: first, we finalized construction of our manufacturing facility expansion project in France, nearly doubling the size of the facility. The increase in the manufacturing footprint will allow us to continue to grow sales in Western Europe in the attractive vocational truck space.

Net orders, by the way, in France were up 32% year-over-year in the second half of 2025. We completed the consolidation of additional manufacturing facilities in our snow and sweeper and safety businesses within the Industrial Equipment division. Production is up and running smoothly in both facilities in which the manufacturing lines were consolidated. These consolidations will allow us to continue to remove fixed cost and expand gross margins. We launched our global procurement and supply chain initiative. This initiative will allow us to expand margins and optimize carrying levels of inventories over the next several years. In our Tree Care and recycling business within our vegetation management division, we signed several new independent dealers in critical parts of the United States where we had long-standing gaps. These commercial efforts will help improve sales and market share. We recruited and elevated several very experienced and talented senior leaders in a few businesses within the vegetation management division.

We're looking forward to positive outcomes from these industry veterans in 2026. As Agnes mentioned, we signed and recently closed on the acquisition of Petersen Industries, a market leader in the manufacturer of Grapple equipment serving the bulky waste end market. This acquisition is a great example of the type of tuck-in acquisitions we're targeting. The M&A pipeline is robust, and we're excited to build on this momentum in 2026. We continue to centralize certain functional departments like IT, finance, procurement and HR. These actions will help unlock previously constrained value and will lay the foundation for a more modern technology-driven organization, all while maintaining that local entrepreneurial brands part, we love. In terms of product innovation, we're in final stages of testing our next-generation hybrid sweeper, which uses a proprietary electric sweeping architecture compared to third-party hydraulic systems in our competitors' products.

This new electric sweeping architecture can run on diesel CNG or electric chassis globally and deliver superior efficiency, safety and performance. This is a great example of how Alamo Group's product innovation engine is beginning to shift from fast follower to first mover. Lastly, we performed a review of the portfolio of the businesses we operate. As a result, we identified and aligned around divesting or discontinuing a few product lines that don't fit our go-forward strategy and are not and have not been profitable. These actions will unfold over the course of 2026. And while small, we expect it will also contribute to our margin expansion story. These are all great examples of the key initiatives underway that we believe will help deliver on our long-term goals.

Before I conclude, I'd like to highlight again a few of our financial targets. It's very important to understand these are long-term through-the-cycle targets. First, sales growth of 10%, including the effects of acquisitions; second, adjusted operating margins of around 15%. Third, adjusted EBITDA margins of around 18% to 20%. And finally, fourth, free cash flow as a percentage of net income of 100%. In summary, as we've worked through the transition during the latter part of 2025 and I'd like to express my thanks and appreciation to our employees who continue to demonstrate a strong passion for helping solve the needs of our customers. I also want to thank our customers and shareholders, many of whom I've had the opportunity to meet. All of you are helping to further shape the future of Alamo Group and to deliver sustainable, superior performance. This concludes our prepared remarks. Operator, please open the lines for questions.

[Operator Instructions] The first question is from Mike Shlisky with D.A. Davidson.

I wanted to get a final point on couple of different details from your prepared remarks there. First of all, on the industrial side, you mentioned that growth rates might slow down, if I caught that correctly, does that mean you're going to see a decline in the top line in 2026 or just maybe perhaps notify to double-digit growth, but still positive in 2026.

Yes, Mike. In short, I would say more the latter. So as we've mentioned, the Industrial division has seen strong end market demand over the last 8 quarters, really strong, robust double-digit growth. All things being equal, we expect to the end markets to slow in 2026. I think as we look out over the course of the year, that lag means something in the order of magnitude of flattish to maybe low to mid-single-digit end market growth. [indiscernible] my [indiscernible] on our business.

Recall that roughly 25% of that industrial division business is snow. Something a little bit different going on with within snow in the past, we would historically chase every last dollar of sales regardless of the margin profile -- we're not going to do that. We're changing direction with respect to the snow business, it's all about the quality of earnings and the margins. And therefore, on a year-over-year basis, you'll likely see a little bit downward pressure in snow, but the remaining businesses would align with that end market demand that I just talked about. So that was a long-winded answer, but in short, kind of flattish to low to mid-single-digit end market demand in the majority of those industrial divisions businesses. Does that get to your question, Mike?

Yes, just to clarify, your comments do or do not include the effect of peers and other acquiring businesses.

Excluding Pearson.

Okay. And then the other fine point I wanted to ask about was actually on Peterson. Just tell us -- can you tell us a little bit about whether that's a growing business in 2026? Is it going to be accretive except all the usual stuff that we want to hear about just from a directional standpoint for the next 12 months?

Yes. So we're really excited about the Petersen acquisition. First thing I would say is it really is a great example of the type of tuck-in deals that we're looking at. It's a business whose end markets whose sales channels, whose product categories are very similar or close to our core. It's accretive from a margin perspective.

We got it at a fair price. We think it's a growth end market. It's a leader in its space. It's got talented management team that is staying with the business. So many, many positive attributes about that business. As we think about it in 2026, I believe in the press release, we articulated the purchase price, the multiple and what the 2025 sales were going to be. One thing to highlight as you think about 2026 is we acquired it at the end of January. So you'll see 11/12 of sales in 2026, of course. I think the growth will be a little bit slow in 2026, but overall, a good long-term end market to be in. In terms of the margin profile, it's above what the Alamo Group averages are in terms of adjusted operating margins and adjusted EBITDA margins. We are going to make some investments early in this business. to drive some of those synergies, particularly in the area of operations and some commercial folks. So you might see a little bit of degradation in the margin profile early on relative to its history, but nothing that would drive it below the [indiscernible]. [indiscernible]

Maybe one last one for me. This week is a big [indiscernible] show of products on the like [indiscernible] can you share with us what your the [indiscernible]educations for what you think might take place here? Good other [indiscernible] here testing what [indiscernible] for 2026.

Yes. So we're super excited for the first time [indiscernible]. The entire Alamo Group portfolio or the majority of the portfolio will be there in 1 booth, if you will. So you'll be there as a team showcasing a lot of our products will have some new things don't want to share right now what those are. We've got a lot of new products in the work. I highlighted one in the prepared remarks that we're super excited about. We think in many cases, these product innovations really demonstrate the shift [indiscernible] here at Alamo from a follower to first mover. That's an important principle that we're adopting here at the Alamo Group. Not going to showcase all of those at the show. Some of them are still in the final stages, but will be rolled out later in 2026. I would expect we would take orders, I would expect show to drive positive results for us. It will be my first time there, so [indiscernible] at the show.

[indiscernible] Mircea Dobre with Baird.

[indiscernible]So let me provide a little bit more.

Color with respect to the fourth action division. And then quarter specific question. [indiscernible] a little bit here. Starting with the fourth quarter, there really were 3 things that drove the margin compression in the fourth quarter. The first was lower volumes and the lower volumes had inverse leverage on our fixed manufacturing costs and our SG&A costs as a said, that was the primary driver of the margin progression in the quarter.

The reason the volumes were lower, we saw end market demand slow meaningfully in 2 of our businesses in Tree Care and in government mowing or municipal knowing. In the tree care business, Recall that the majority of this business serves the large industrial sector, which is tied to land clearing operations, which is tied to housing. And many of these products are very, very expensive to north of $1 million. And so what we saw was dealers hesitant to place orders in the fourth quarter. That was different from the preceding quarters during 2025.

In many ways, similarly in government mowing Here, we are selling through dealers, but many of our end customers are state DOT offices, Department of Transportation Officers. In the third and fourth quarter and more pronounced in the fourth quarter, the DOT offices are wrestling with the impact from the 1 big beautiful build. Under the 1 big beautiful bill, federal government is shifting burdens to the state for certain costs and expenses and actually resin certain funding tied to highways and access and things of that nature. So in the fourth quarter, you saw DOTs, certain large state DOTs that we do business with hesitant to place orders. don't think either of these things are long term in nature.

They're short term, but that drove the end markets down, which compressed margins. That's the first thing. In addition, reflecting on that softer end markets, we ended up taking some charges and reserves around some slow-moving inventory in these particular businesses that I just referenced. That's the second thing. And then the third thing was we talked about the consolidation activity in 2 facilities in the vegetation division. We made good progress from the third to the fourth in terms of driving those efficiencies.

We can see in the underlying KPIs. Things are getting better, it will take another quarter or thereabouts, but it's improving. But nonetheless, we left a little bit of backlog on the table in the quarter. Those are the 3 drivers of the margin degradation in the fourth quarter in order of prominence, if you will. As we shift from the fourth to the first within the vegetation management division, we would expect to see top line improvement first fourth to first, and we would expect to see margin improvement, adjusted operating and adjusted EBITDA margin improvement from the fourth to first. you compare that first quarter of 2026 relative to where we were in the first quarter of 2022, 2025, we're likely to get close to that level, maybe a little bit south of that level. But recall, we're coming off of 8 quarters of down 13%, 14%, 15%. In terms of profitability in the first quarter in vegetation management division, Again, we'll see sequential good improvement, but probably not all the way back to the level of first quarter 2025. So good progress.

We're encouraged. We're starting to see green shoots in many of these places, even in tree care, we saw good green shoots in the quoting activity early on in 2026. Longer term, the goal is to get back at least initially longer term in 2026, and get back initially to at least where we were in the first half of 2025 back in that 8% adjusted operating margin level. Longer term, through the cycle, the goal is to get to that 15% OI, 18% adjusted EBITDA levels. We think we can do that. The primary thing that needs to happen is we need the end markets and the volumes to stabilize from the there we can start building we think we have start happening in 2026. Does that help?

Got it. That was awesome, Robert. Last one for me here, just on M&A. I understand that Petersen is still in the early days of being integrated here. But just wondering what your deal pipeline looks like? And is there any detail you could give on verticals you might be a or potential adjacencies that might be looking to add to your current platform that could be M&A targets in the future. .

[indiscernible] Lever within our capital deployment framework, Super excited about it. Ed and the team are doing a wonderful job building the pipeline. We're engaged with a number of folks. Nothing is imminent, but we're excited about the trajectory that we're on. As we've said in a couple of instances, we are primarily focused on tuck-in acquisitions. It doesn't mean we won't do a large deal, but that the sweet spot is going to be on tuck-in acquisitions. These are probably $10 million to $20 million of EBITDA, give or take, something in that order of magnitude.

We like to stay close to the core, meaning sales channels that we're familiar with, where we can drive commercial synergies, product categories that we're familiar with and markets that we're familiar with. Again, it doesn't mean we won't go a little bit to the right or to the little bit to the left like we did with Peterson entering into the waste management and grapple space, but we feel like that's close enough to the core. One thing I would say is probably in the near term, we're probably lean a little bit more industrial in nature, long cycle in nature rather than shorter cycle in nature. We love both divisions here at the Alamo Group, and there's opportunities for M&A in both divisions, but near term probably leaning just a smidge more towards the industrial space. Does that help?

The next question is from Chris Moore with CJS Securities.

Maybe just 1 follow-up on the vegetation margins. I'll start with. I want to make sure I heard correctly. So in terms of Q1, Robert, did you say that the margins can approach the 8.1% that you did in Q1 '25, I thought there's still some consolidation going on in the vegetation division. Did I hear that correctly? .

No. And maybe I wasn't clear or it's getting a little long in this year. So let me try it again. As we move from the fourth quarter of 2025 into the first quarter of 2026, we should expect to see good progression on the top line and good progression on the adjusted operating and adjusted EBITDA margins from [indiscernible]. Fourth, [indiscernible] and when we compare the first of '26 to the first in 2025, will approach or [indiscernible] get all the way back to that level. But we're making good progress towards it. We think there's good progression. We see the efficiencies. We won't get all the way back to where we were in terms of the margin in Q1 of 2025.

Got it. Okay. You look close to $8.1 million, you won't get there. That makes sense. In terms of just the backlog at the [indiscernible] book-to-bill was on the industry, I think it was 0.8% something. The backlog at the end of [indiscernible] division was roughly $400 million and the backlog model, when we think about that back of the [indiscernible] we're also looking at the order pattern. The order had or a couple of things, and quite strong in the Industrial division across all 3 businesses. [indiscernible] really, really robust in our snow group excited about the things that we can do there. Again, I do think it's important just to stress when you -- when we look at the snow business and its impact on the division going forward.

We're going to be a little light on sales as we're not chasing that last dollar at low margins. We're being a little bit more disciplined around the types of business that we do really good backlog -- sorry, a really good order pattern. The backlogs overall, the lead times are in good shape. We don't feel like we're too extended. Snow is probably 6 months, which is 6 to 9 months, which is better than our competitors, and we're picking up share because of that. In the vegetation management division, again, from an order pattern perspective, we saw really good order strength in the first quarter in our U.S. ag business in our European ag businesses, which is really remarkable.

We think that signals potentially good, more stable environment in 2026. The other businesses, [indiscernible] Care and government mowing, like I said, were somewhat weak in the fourth quarter. I think maybe the other thing to add, Chris, there is the ending -- sorry, the inventories in the channel in both divisions are in reasonably good spot, particularly within U.S. ag. They've been depleted over the last several years. So there's no -- that's not a headwind for us going into 2026. In fact, if anything, it might be a little bit of a tailwind.

Got it. And just in terms of the longer-term 15% operating margin, I know that's -- initially, I thought it was fiscal '28, but it's more through the through the cycle and you talked about different pieces leading to manufacturing, procurement, supply chain. Are you looking at that? I'm trying to envision that, is that kind of smooth improvement over the next 2, 3, 4 years? Is it more kind of back half loaded when we get some normalization from a volume perspective, just trying to understand kind of how we get from here to that 15%. .

Yes, I can understand that. The first thing, and it's the most important is we need end market stability. As I mentioned, we've seen 8 quarters now of consecutive down 13%, 14%, 15% in the end markets. That's a really challenging environment to operate in. I think the team has done a nice job taking out costs and adjusting to rightsize to that level of demand, we still have more work to do. But the first thing that we need is stabilization in those end markets. And the way we think about that is, obviously, the fourth quarter was not what we all wanted or expect going forward. We've got to get back to where you were in the first half of 2025 in the vegetation division. And that is when you look at the average between the first and the second quarter, we were around 20% adjusted operating margin. So that's what we're chasing. We've got to get back to there stable volumes rightsize the manufacturing facilities to the end market demand level, we get to 8%. From there, we're on our way with a little bit of tail win with a little bit of volume growth, will then push to 10%, and we'll begin our journey on the 300 basis points that I talked about in the last call, point from procurement, point from park and service point from continued manufacturing efficiencies. So I expect if the markets stabilize, you'll see good progression, certainly back half '25 to full year 26% in terms of that operating margin, and then it slows steady on our way from there. That color help?

It does. It does.

[Operator Instructions] The next question is from Greg Burns with Sidoti & Company.

Did you mention what side of the business or more specifically where the product divestitures were coming from? .

In the vegetation management division. And these are product lines. They're not brands or businesses, they're product lines that really don't fit where we're going long term. So we'll look to divest those at some point over the course of 2026.

Okay. And then the orders in the vegetation management side of the business in the fourth quarter, I know you mentioned ag was up and Tree Care and government marine were down. Is there any way you could quantify maybe like how much ag was up, how much tree care was down just to get a sense of where those 2 businesses are from a demand perspective? .

Yes, definitely. So the U.S. ag business in the European ag business, they were both up double digits. The U.S. ag business, even a little bit stronger. So good performance -- and by the way, we see that continuing into the first quarter. So really positive sign that those end markets are moving in the right direction. Now again, whether or not in 2026, they get all the way to flat or growth is coming off of 8 quarters of down 15%, still to be determined, but it's a very positive, very positive sign. In the Tree Care and the government mowing or now municipal mowing, they too were double digits but down double digits. What I will say is in TreatCare and Government Boeing it feels like that was a fourth quarter end of year hesitant to place orders specifically in Tree Care because we can see in the first quarter, the level of quoting activity actually increased. So we're in [indiscernible] to the first quarter a little in the early days. Overall, I think that's going to be in a good spot as Congress kind of works through their renewal or extension of the Infrastructure Investment Act, but we'll see short-term weakness there in government volume. That color help?

Yes. No, that was great.

This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to management for any closing remarks.

We appreciate the interest in the Alamo Group and look forward to speaking with you again on our next call. Thank you.

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.

Good morning, and welcome to the Alamo Group Inc. Third Quarter 2020 Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note this event is being recorded.

I would now like to turn the conference over to Edward Rizzuti, Executive Vice President, Corporate Development and Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you. By now, you should have all received a copy of the press release. However, if anyone is missing a copy and would like to receive one, please contact us at 212-827-3746, and we will send you a release and make sure you are on the company's distribution list. There will be a replay of the call, which will begin 1 hour after the call and run for 1 week. The replay can be accessed by dialing 1 (877) 344-7529 with the passcode 523 4040. Additionally, the call is being webcast on the company's website at www.alamo-group.com, and a replay will be available for 60 days.

On the line with me today are Robert Hureau, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Agnes Kamps, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Management will make some opening remarks, and then we will open up the line for your questions. During the call today, management may reference certain non-GAAP numbers in their remarks. Reconciliations of these non-GAAP results to applicable GAAP numbers are included in the attachments to our earnings release.

Before turning the call over to Robert, I would like to make a few comments about forward-looking statements. We will be making forward-looking statements today that are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties and which may cause the company's actual results in future periods to differ materially from forecasted results. Among those factors which could cause actual results to differ materially are the following: adverse economic conditions, which could lead to a reduction in overall market demand, supply chain disruptions, labor constraints, competition, weather, seasonality, currency-related issues, geopolitical events and other risk factors listed from time to time in the company's SEC reports. The company does not undertake any obligation to update the information contained herein, which speaks only as of this date.

I would now like to introduce Robert Hureau. Robert, please go ahead.

Thank you, Ed. I'd like to thank everyone for joining our third quarter earnings conference call. We appreciate your continued interest in the Alamo Group.

Before we get started, I'd like to take a moment to say how excited I am to be part of such a great company to have the opportunity to lead it through our next chapter of growth. The Alamo Group has some of the most talented and passionate employees portfolio of high-quality, purpose-built products that are loved by its operators, brands that are leaders in their respective markets and a business model that is highly cash generative. In addition, A key pillar of the company's business model is its strategic positioning in attractive end markets, including reliable, municipal and contractor spending on infrastructure maintenance in public works with additional upside in other end markets such as tree care and land management. In my view, it's a really exciting time to join and be part of the Alamo Group as we shape its future and continue to create value for investors, employees, our customers and our operators.

Overall, the results for the third quarter were mixed with continued strong performance in our Industrial Equipment division and continued weakness in the vegetation management division. Let me start by sharing a few highlights for the quarter. Net sales were $420 million, up 5% from the third quarter of 2024. Adjusted net income was $28 million, down 3% compared to adjusted net income of $29 million in the third quarter of 2024. Adjusted EBITDA was $55 million or 13% of net sales compared to $55 million or 14% of net sales in the third quarter of 2024 and operating cash flow for the 9 months ended September 30, 2025, was $102 million or 116% of net income.

While I'm not pleased with the results, I am optimistic and confident in the future performance of the company and the opportunities ahead.

I'll turn the call over to Agnes to review our financial results in detail. When she's finished, I'll come back and share thoughts on a number of items, including a deeper look into the performance of each of our divisions, our go-forward strategy and some thoughts on capital allocation. Agnes?

Thank you, Robert. Good morning, everyone. Net sales for the third quarter of 2025 were $420 million, up 4.7%, including organic growth of 3.4% and compared to the third quarter of 2024. Gross profit for the third quarter of 2025 was $101.7 million up 0.8% compared to the third quarter of 2024. Gross margin for the third quarter of 2025 was 24.2% and down 90 basis points compared to the third quarter of 2024. The deprecation in gross margin was primarily due to unforeseen production inefficiencies related to the consolidation of manufacturing facilities in the vegetation management division and due to tariff costs in both divisions.

Regarding the production inefficiencies in the vegetation management division we expect this to continue through the fourth quarter and into the first quarter before we start to realize the expected benefit. Regarding tariff costs, during the third quarter, we raised prices further to mitigate the impact of tariffs going forward. In addition, we are continuing to focus on a variety of supply chain initiatives to reduce costs and manage our supplier base. Selling, general and administrative expense or SG&A expense for the third quarter was $59.9 million up 5.6% from the third quarter of 2024. SG&A expense in the third quarter of 2025 included $3.3 million related to the CEO transition acquisition and integration costs. Excluding these items, our SG&A expense as a percentage of net sales in the third quarter of 2020 would have been slightly lower than the third quarter -- interest expense for the third quarter of 2025 were $3.9 million, down from $4.9 million in the third quarter -- the reduction in interest expense was due to lower average outstanding debt.

Interest income for third quarter was $1.5 million, up from $0.8 million in the third quarter of 2025 post and integrate higher average cash balances. For the 9-month period ended September 30, ratios, our effective income tax rate was 25.3% in which was higher than the effective income tax rate for the 9-month period ended September 30, 2024, and the full year 2024. However, the 2025 effective tax rate of 25.3% is in line with our current and long-term expectations.

Adjusted net income for the third quarter of 2025 in to $2.2 million was down slightly from adjusted net income of $28.6 million for the third quarter of 2024. The adjusted earnings per share on a fully diluted basis for the third quarter of 20.5% was $2.34 compared to $2.38 for the third quarter. Now I'll share some comments regarding the results for each of the divisions. Net sales in the Industrial Equipment division for the third quarter were $247 million, representing an increase of 17% or 14.5% organic growth compared to the third quarter of 2024. This performance reflects another record quarter for the Industrial Equipment division with strong sales across all groups. Adjusted EBITDA as a percentage of net sales for the third quarter of 2025 was 15.5% compared to 15.7% for the third quarter of 2024.

Net sales in vegetation management division for the third quarter of 2025 were $173.1 million, a decrease of 9% compared to the third quarter of 2024. The decrease in net sales relected persistent weakness in certain end markets such as tree care and agriculture and some production challenges associated with our consolidation activities, as previously noted. Adjusted EBITDA as a percentage of net sales for the third quarter of 2025 was 9.7% compared to 11.5% for the third quarter of 2024.

Moving on to the balance sheet. We maintained a strong financial position and flexibility to support ongoing initiatives and future investments at September 30, 2025, total assets were $1.595 million, up $113.6 million from the third quarter driven primarily by higher cash and cash equivalents. Accounts receivable decreased $21.4 million to $335.2 million, reflecting an improvement in day sales outstanding versus prior year third quarter. Inventory increased slightly by $6.2 million to $378.2 million to support growth in the Industrial Equipment division. However, days inventory on hand improved year-over-year. Accounts payable increased $32 million to $129.3 million at quarter end. As a result, cash provided by operating activity for the 9 months ended September 30, 2025, was $102.4 million, a healthy conversion of 116% of net income.

Cash used in investing activities for the 9-month period ended September 30, 2025, was $41.9 million and reflects cash used in acquisition of Ringo medic and $25.4 million used for capital expenditures. The increase in capital expenditure compared to the same period in prior year was primarily due to expansion of 1 of our manufacturing activities in the industrial management division. Cash used in financing activities for the 9-month period ended September 30, 2025, were $23.6 million reflecting repayments of principal on our long-term debt and dividends paid.

As of September 30, 2025, our total debt was $209.4 million, in addition, as of September 30, 2025, we had $244.8 million in cash on the balance sheet and $397 million available on the revolver facility.

To conclude, I would like to emphasize our commitment to delivering long-term value to our shareholders. We are pleased that our Board has approved a quarterly dividend of $0.30 per share. As we move forward, we will remain focused on driving growth and optimization of our operation.

Thank you. I'll turn it back over to Robert.

Thank you, Agnes. Let me start by providing a little more color on the operating performance for each of our divisions. First, the Industrial Equipment division. As Agnes mentioned, the performance in the division continued to be quite strong with net sales up 17% compared to the third quarter of 2024. The third quarter was the seventh consecutive quarter of year-over-year double-digit net sales growth for the Industrial division. Net sales in each of our excavators and vacuum trucks now and sweepers and Safety group performed well during the quarter. The net sales growth of 17% was due to several factors, including price, market growth, market share gains in the acquisition of RingoMatic. I'd like to share some thoughts on each.

Regarding price, during the year, many of the business groups executed fairly typical annual price increases. In addition, many of our businesses took price again more recently, as Agnes mentioned, to mitigate the impact of tariffs. As it relates to tariffs, our aim in both divisions will be to pass these costs along to customers. And to continue availing ourselves of applicable tariff exemptions. In tandem with price increases, we continue to focus on local sourcing and supplier diversification where appropriate. Regarding our core end markets, they continue to be resilient. Our municipal and contractor exposure to end markets such as infrastructure, public works and utilities generates good, solid long-term growth. To help put this in perspective, state and local spending over the past nearly 20 quarters has grown at a healthy compound annual rate of approximately 5%.

Regarding market share, we continue to demonstrate our leadership position in win share in certain businesses. Our teams have been doing great work, innovating our products and partnering with good dealers and customers. Let me share a quick example of what we mean related to product innovation. We recently showcased our new non-CDL vacuum truck at the Utility Expo in Louisville. This product was intentionally designed to accomplish several goals with a high level of standardization. The product can be built either as a hydro excavator or as a sewer combo cleaner. Additionally, both modules will fit into a container for economic international shipping, we can -- where they can be updated on a chassis in country. This is a great example of how we can attract new customers and penetrate deeper with existing customers through product innovation. You'll continue to hear more about product innovation as a theme going forward.

Lastly, as you know, we completed the acquisition of Ringomatic in the second quarter of this year. While small, it contributed to the year-over-year growth in net sales. As a reminder, Ringo Matic produces trailer-mounted vacuum equipment. The addition of this type of product nicely rounds out our product offering in this attractive end market and continues to strengthen our leadership position. As I mentioned, the Industrial Equipment division has delivered double-digit growth for 7 consecutive quarters. Looking forward, however, we don't expect that double-digit pace of growth to continue. We expect it on an organic basis to return to more moderate but still attractive levels.

During the third quarter, net orders were down year-over-year, resulting in a book-to-bill of less than 1. That book-to-bill reflects some lumpiness in the sequential order pattern, some intentional reduction in our lead times through improvement improved manufacturing throughput and a little bit of cooling in the end markets. The early order pattern in the fourth quarter has started off in a reasonable position, and we have a healthy level of backlog in the division. Overall, we're pleased with the Industrial Equipment division's performance.

Now let's discuss vegetation management division. As Agnes mentioned, the performance in our vegetation management division continued to experience weakness. Net sales were down 9% compared to the third quarter of 2024. Specifically, net sales in each of our tree care, government mowing and agricultural groups were down. The net sales decline of 9% was due to several factors, including the end markets and challenges with the consolidation of 2 of our facilities, partly offset by pricing. Regarding pricing similar to the Industrial Equipment division, many of the vegetation management businesses increased price during the year and more recently increased price again to mitigate the impact of tariffs.

Regarding our core end markets like land management, agriculture and tree care, they continue to show weakness. And as a result, sales volumes were lower. Regarding the consolidation of our manufacturing facilities, I'd like to highlight a few items. Recall, we launched an initiative in the second half of 2024 to consolidate various facilities. The objective of the consolidation is simply to remove fixed cost and more productive, particularly given where we are in the end market cycle. These are absolutely the right initiatives. We made some progress in prior quarters. That progress was primarily centered around the winding down of operations in the originating facilities and a reduction in workforce. The progress during the third quarter was a bit more challenging. Those challenges centered around production activities in the manufacturing locations to which the operations were moved. These are complex products and complex processes. These types of consolidation simply take time.

In addition, these activities were occurring while the end markets continued to decline. Both our net sales and operating margins were impacted in the quarter. As we sit today, we expect to make progress on these initiatives going forward, but it will take 1 or 2 more quarters before operations in those specific facilities will normalize and yield the full operating efficiencies we anticipate. Now at the same time, net orders in the vegetation management division in the third quarter of 2025 increased double digits on a percentage basis compared to the same quarter in 2024, and the book-to-bill was a solid one. The early order pattern in the fourth quarter is also off to a reasonable start. In addition, if the Fed continues to reduce interest rates, it's possible we'll see stabilization or improvement in the end markets in 2026.

Overall, we're not pleased with the Vegetation Management division's performance in the quarter, but are confident we'll finish the consolidation activity and drive margin improvement as originally planned. I'd now like to share some comments regarding the broad framework of our long-term strategy. There are 4 pillars of the strategy in which we'll focus and devote resources, one, people and culture; two, commercial excellence, three, operational excellence; and four, acquisitions. Let me share some color on each. First, as it relates to people and culture, we intend to continue building on the good work that's been done around developing a safe and engaging work environment, investing in our future leaders and developing a mindset of continuous improvement with a truly engaged workforce, we believe we can outperform over the long run.

Second, as it relates to commercial excellence, our emphasis will be on winning through product innovation and catering to the needs of our customers and the users of our products. In addition, expect emphasis on higher-margin profit pools, such as parts and service. And third, as it relates to operational excellence, we intend to drive margin improvement through a more efficient, lean-oriented manufacturing platform and a more cost-effective, high-quality focused supply chain. Lastly, acquisitions. Let me address this and share some thoughts in the context of a broader capital allocation framework. First, our primary use of cash will be aimed at acquisitions. In general, our interest will be more focused on tuck-in type acquisitions that can be accretive to organic revenue growth and EBITDA margins. Executed at attractive multiples in end markets that are nondiscretionary, less cyclical and close to our core, have good management teams and our market leaders. This doesn't rule out larger transactions, there may be unique opportunities for larger deals that have a great strategic fit.

As Agnes highlighted, we have cash on the balance sheet and capacity to use leverage in a responsible manner. Our pipeline of targets is growing. We're working to continue the flow of good opportunities and are spending our time prioritizing them. Simultaneously, we'll continue to invest in capital projects allocating these dollars between revenue-generating projects, cost reduction projects, back office areas to support long-term growth, which will be needed in various maintenance items. Capital expenditures in some years may be more or less than others, but on average, we should be running around 2% of sales. In addition, we expect to continue with the dividend, which today is running around $15 million annually or $0.30 on per share per quarter.

And lastly, recall that in 2024, the Board approved a $50 million share buyback program. While this program is still authorized, we are very mindful of a growing and exciting M&A pipeline and the limited float of stock we have today.

Before I conclude, I'd like to share with you a few thoughts on our financial targets. It's important to understand these are long-term through-the-cycle targets. First, sales growth of 10% plus, including the effects of acquisitions. Second, adjusted operating income margins of around 15%. Third, adjusted EBITDA margins of around 18% to 20%. And finally, fourth, free cash flow as a percentage of net income of 100%. We believe these targets are achievable and will demonstrate our leadership within the markets we compete. We look forward to updating you on our progress in the future.

In summary, I'd like to say that I'm incredibly excited about the road ahead, confident in our ability to unlock the full potential of the Alamo Group. This concludes our prepared remarks.

[Operator Instructions] The first question comes from Chris Moore with CGS Securities.

A couple. Maybe we can start on the vegetation margin. So it sounds like will be improving, but still challenged Q4 into Q1. I guess my question is, can you get back above 10% operating margins on vegetation without meaningful revenue growth at this stage.

Yes. We definitely can. Let me emphasize a few points that we made in the prepared remarks, and then I'll provide a little additional color. So first thing I would say is that we believe we can get to operating margins -- adjusted operating margins of 15% adjusted EBITDA margins of 20%. I think there's a couple of steps along the way. First is as we get the production efficiencies improved over the next quarter or 2, we should see a 200, 300, 400 basis point improvement on that basis alone. In addition, we'll pick up some volume leverage as those markets stabilize and/or recover, hopefully towards the back half of 2026. And then in addition, I think there's 20 to 30 basis points of improved opportunity on both sides of the house with respect to procurement savings, improved parts and service as a percentage of the total business and overall lean efficiencies.

So that was a little bit of a long-winded way of saying, definitely, yes, we can get those margins back. I'm confident it will take us 1 or 2 quarters to drive those efficiencies in the vegetation business in those specific facilities that are undergoing the consolidations.

Got it. Very helpful. And maybe for my follow-up, just industrial orders, seem okay but moderating a bit. Is within the segment? Or are there specific areas that are a little more challenged than others that are staying strong? Or just kind of any insight or color you could give to the industrial kind of segment outlook?

Definitely. First thing I'd say is on a year-to-date basis, industrial orders are still up. They're up single digits. We're generally pretty pleased with that in the quarter. As you noted, they were down I would point to a couple of the groups. First, within excavators and vacuum, net order down in the quarter, but they are lumpy. If you recall and you go back to the second quarter of this year, you would see a fairly significant robust order pattern. It came off of those highs in the third quarter. But again, on a year-to-date basis, that group is up double digits. Snow was also down in the quarter. But here, not only are -- is the order are-- can the order part and be lumpy. It's lumpy on an annual basis take, for example, parts of the Canadian market, certain regions in the Canadian market issue contracts to service providers on an annual basis every several years in 2025, only 1 of those contracts was given out in this particular region.

We had several contracts being awarded in the fourth -- between the fourth and the first. And so I give that caller to demonstrate that not only is it lumpy from quarter-to-quarter, but it can be lumpy from year-to-year in the snow division. Sweepers and safety were up and are up substantially on a year-to-date basis. So in the aggregate, they're down. There's a little bit of lumpiness going on here. There's some improved manufacturing throughput, which is bringing our lead times back into healthy states. That's something we feel good about. And sure, in some parts of the industrial business, there's a little bit of cooling in the end markets.

We reported 17% growth in sales in the industrial segment. That's really robust growth that just over the long term, probably will be hard to do, and you'll see those end markets cooling a bit in 2026, still healthy, still attractive, still less cyclical, but cooling a bit.

The next question comes from Greg Burns with Sidoti & Company.

Can you just talk about the state of the -- some of the channels within your vegetation management segment, segment, particularly Ag and Forrester and True Care, how do the inventory level sit? And are you seeing any slowdown or headwinds in the ag market, given some of the trade headwinds that we're seeing lately?

Yes. So a couple of comments. First, I would say we're pretty pleased with the order pattern. On a year-to-date basis, we're up 11%. In the quarter, we were up 12%. A lot of that is coming from North America ag. So at the highest level, pleased with the order pattern. When you then break it down into some of the segments, I would say that Tree Care is a space that we saw a little bit of weakness in the quarter. Recall that within tree care, there are subsegments. It's really the industrial subsegment within tree care that has experienced some softness. In this space, think about these products being really large, very expensive products. These are products that would cost $1 million or thereabouts. And we're seeing some of the customers just being hesitant at this time, placing those orders still looking out, given the uncertainty in 2026 with respect to tariffs and generally, the macroeconomic situation.

So there's a little bit of softness there. There's a little bit of softness in the government mowing, some of those customers, DOT, customers, et cetera, are a little bit hesitant on placing orders. But in the aggregate, we feel pretty good about the order pattern. When we talk to customers -- customer sentiment generally as we look forward to 2026 is somewhat neutral to still a little bit cautious. Inventory levels generally across the division are in a reasonable spot. So there's nothing unusual there and order cancellations are in line with or historic averages. So generally speaking, we feel pretty good, recognizing that there feels like we're certainly during the year have continued to cycle down with the end markets, but hoping that we're at the bottom here with some stabilization and maybe some growth later in 2026.

Okay. And then the margins on the Industrial segment, down a little bit year-over-year, but lower than where they were in the first half of the year. maybe tariffs are a little bit of that. But what was the -- what are the primary drivers behind the decline in margin on the industrial side of the business?

Yes. There's a little bit of noise, but it really is mostly margin -- sorry, mostly tariffs. Recall, none in the first quarter, a little in the second quarter and they picked up in the third quarter. So when we think about tariffs, particularly as we look forward to 2026, you should think about tariffs as somewhere in the order of magnitude of a little less than 1% of sales. I'll give you an approximate level of what we think tariffs will be going forward. A little bit less than that in 2025, they spiked up a little bit in '20 in the third quarter outside of that, nothing really unusual. That figure that I just gave you excludes any impact from the recent news around tariffs on truck chassis. We're still looking to work with our chassis suppliers to understand what that impact might be. But hopefully, that gives you a good sense as to where tariffs will trend. I think the other thing that's important is, as we mentioned, as Agnes mentioned, we did pass price along in the quarter, not enough to cover those tariffs completely.

We'll continue to work to do so along with managing our supply base, et cetera. But that really was the noise in the Industrial division in the quarter.

The next question comes from Mike Schilsky with D.A. Davidson.

The margin goals that you outlined, Robert, I think they're a bit of a step-up from the previous CEO's goals, which were also reasonably good goals. Do you have any sense, Robert, as to how long it might take for you to get to the 18% EBITDA? And are there any truly major transformations that have to take place to get there either a large M&A deal that has very high margins or something that we are thinking of that might help close that gap there.

Yes. So good question, Mike. I think about it in steps and in phases. The first phase here is we want to return the vegetation division margins to where they were working through some of these challenges around the consolidations. We think that will take 1 or 2 quarters. So that alone will return a couple of hundred basis points to that particular division.

Secondly, I think a little bit of tailwind on the sales side, particularly in that division will be helpful and should generate another couple of hundred basis points of margin improvement. So as we look through the cycle with a little bit of tailwind, I can see 400, 500 basis points of improvement in the vegetation business alone, which on a weighted average basis, will contribute a couple of hundred basis points to the consolidated operating margins. From there, I think there are 200 or 300 or 400 basis points of margin improvement that will come from procurement savings we had several major initiatives underway right now to drive those savings. It will come from just a bit improvement in our parts and service as a percentage of the total mix of the company think that has probably fallen off just a bit over the last year or 2. It's something we expect to put resources behind.

And then a little bit another 100 or so basis points of margin improvement from really driving and shaping this continuous improvement mindset that lean manufacturing culture, if you will. So I think we can get to 15% operating percent EBITDA margins over the next couple of years. We do need a little bit of tailwind on the vegetation side to get there, though, perhaps not to the extent of a full recovery that we saw back in, I think it was '21, early part of '22, but we need a little bit of tailwind to get there. Does that help?

Absolutely. And maybe to follow up on that, in a few months that you've been at Alamo. Have you -- I guess, what have you done so far to to push the company towards those goals? And maybe more broadly, what have you changed anything major, just more in general about how Alamo runs on a day-to-day basis? Or is that still to come here?

Well, it's been a busy first couple of months for sure. As I said in my opening remarks, I couldn't be more proud to be working with the team that we have here. We've got a great, great leadership team. We've got great brands products. I've talked to a lot of our customers. They really love our product. The #1 thing that our customers say that are important to them is the trust and the relationship and the partner partnership that they have with OEMs, and that is really strong with the company. So I'm super excited about that. A lot of the first days or thereabout so far has been getting to know the team and understanding the business and the rhythm and getting to speak with our customers. In terms of changes, I would say one thing that was underway that we are pushing further, maybe we're accelerating it is to move from a bit more decentralization to centralization in certain key areas like procurement, supply chain, IT.

We're shifting that to a much stronger centralization mode, if you will. That's critical in order for us to be able to deliver the procurement savings that Agnes and I and the other leaders in the organization to see there's a significant amount of opportunity that we're pretty excited to go after. We've engaged with some advisers to help us in that to accelerate that. And then I think the other area that I'm not sure if it's a change or not, but it's definitively emphasis is around M&A, as Agnes highlighted, we've got significant cash on the balance sheet. We've got a significant amount available to us in our revolver, and we could go up in terms of our leverage to 2x, 2.5x or something thereabout would be very reasonable. So we've got a significant amount of dry powder. Ed and the team have been building this pipeline of really rich targets that we're pretty excited about, nothing we can share right now. But super excited around the M&A opportunity.

I think if we can do 1 or 2 deals a year, as I said, they're more likely to be tuck-in type acquisitions. So let's say you're talking $100 million, $150 million of revenue a year. You're talking somewhere around $20 million to $30 million of EBITDA that we could acquire. That's pretty significant earnings growth that we can generate. And of course, we've got the cash to pay down the debt and keep it within a reasonable zone. So one, getting to know the team and getting to a good feel for the rhythm of the business; two, working to centralize some things, moving away from the decentralization mode that we've had in the past and then the really big emphasis around exciting M&A.

Great. And that is maybe my last question. That's on the growth rate on the top line that you outlined, the 10% growth. It sounds like if you got tuck-ins kind of in mind and maybe you're thinking about a few percent there of the overall 10% top line. But then I guess that kind of leads mid- to digit or even a little bit higher than that on the organic side. What can happen there? Obviously, besides some markets have been down coming back, but what can really drive that after everything is kind of back to normal again? Could innovation really mean 5% organic growth that you didn't have before. How much opportunity do you think there is to innovate in a lot of these end markets these days?

Yes. I'm really, really excited about what we can do with product innovation. We just showcased a lot of our products to our Board. We just came off a number of ex positions. Really, really excited about it. Let me outline how I think about that 10% plus figure that I just shared in the prepared remarks. And keep in mind, we just printed 4.7% growth. We've had vegetation business down for 2 to 3 years running. So that 10% plus maybe a little bit conservative, but we're going to start there for the next couple of years. I break it down loosely into 2 buckets. On an organic basis, I think about it in terms of 1% to 2% growth from pricing, maybe a little bit more depending on which way inflation goes. I think about it as maybe 2% to 3% from end markets. Certainly, that's conservative from where we've been in the industrial space today, but that would be aggressive compared to where we've been on the vegetation space.

So 2% to 3% there. And then maybe another 1% to 2% in terms of market share growth from market share. That growth from market share is going to be driven through product innovation, and really catering to our customers and winning by loving our customers. Now that may add up to a slightly a bit more than 5%, but that's how I think about that organic piece today. Then I think about 5% plus from M&A. It doesn't take much to get there. It takes 1 deal, roughly at $100 million of sales to hit that number. I think that's roughly 6% growth. If I break it down somewhat equally between those 2 parts and I think you got a healthy 10% growth. If we can deliver 10% growth constant over the next 4 or 5 years, I think that's fantastic. I like to think we'll do better, particularly when we get that M&A engine really humming we can get to the point where we're doing 1 or 2 deals of that size of a year, then you're really cooking with gasoline.

The next question comes from Mig Dobre with Baird.

Appreciate all the detail that's been covered already. Just to maybe put a finer point when we're thinking about the fourth quarter, -- can you give us directionally a sense for how things are supposed to be trending relative to what you've done in Q3 revenue and margin?

Yes, definitely. So I think if you look at the company's performance historically over the last 10 years or thereabouts, and you kick out some of the extraordinary growth periods around COVID. You would typically see that the first and the fourth quarter are seasonally the lower quarters. And I think you'll see that this year. So as you move from the third quarter to the fourth quarter, I would expect sales to decline somewhere in the order of magnitude of about 4% to 5% sequentially. That's seasonally driven. That would be point one. Point 2 is when you look at that or you run that math on the sales decline from third to fourth, I would expect that decrement to drop through to gross profit somewhere around 30% or thereabouts, a little bit north of what the gross margins are today. And I think that will put you in a good spot as to where the fourth quarter is likely to shape. I would not expect improvement in the vegetation vegetation business moving from third to fourth, just yet. I think those improvements will start to come in the later parts of the fourth quarter.

So seasonal adjustment down from third to fourth, with a roughly 30% drop-through through through gross profit with constant or with no dramatic improvements in vegetation margins. That's how I'd characterize the fourth quarter.

Yes. That's helpful. When we're thinking about industrial, I guess the way I'm reading your comment here is that you should not be thinking improvement in margin sequentially. If anything, it might actually be down relative to Q3. That's correct?

Well, I think you got First of all, those comments I just gave were for the consolidated Alamo. I made some comments with respect to vegetation, but I was leaving that in to describe what I thought the consolidated, what we think the consolidated results will be for the fourth quarter. or the direction that we would hit. To your question within Industrial, I think there are a lot of moving parts. One is you might see a slight sequential decline. And with a sequential decline, you're going to see inverse leverage on the fixed cost. So you'll see compression there. But at the same time, might see a little bit of offset as we launched price increases late in the third quarter to impact tariffs.

So we'll have a full effect of that in the fourth quarter, whereas we only had a partial effect in the third quarter. Some of these things may offset, but -- from a long-term kind of run rate, I wouldn't expect major movements in industrial margins from third to fourth in either direction.

No, I understand that. Really, the reason why I'm asking the question, the margin in Industrial was different than I think all of us were modeling. And you did explain that tariffs had a role to play here. It's just not clear to me in terms of the -- from a near-term perspective as to what the impact of some of the offsets pricing that you talked about are going to be. I mean we used to talk about the exit run rate for this segment to be 15% operating margin. And that clearly seems to be off the table, but the question is, are we really looking at 12 13% operating margin in the fourth quarter? Or can we actually get something that's a little bit better than that.

Yes. I think we're in that ZIP code in the fourth quarter. I think as we look to 2026, we'll start to drive those improvements in operating margin that I highlighted. But I think in the very near term, as we move from third to fourth, we're in that ZIP code that you described.

Very well. And then maybe a clarification. When you mentioned the hundred basis points of sales as impact from tariffs into 2026. Presumably, that is a gross number, so that is before any mitigation or offsets. Help us maybe understand that. Also the way I'm kind of thinking about it is that the year-over-year impact is going to be disproportionately tilted towards the first half of the year. And as far as offsets, how do you think that's going to start flowing through? Is this -- again, is this something that can be done relatively quickly? Or do we need to adjust our expectations for the full year '26 and then maybe hope that things get better in '27?

Yes. So good question. Let me try to frame it a little bit and then just keep me in the fairway. So A little bit less than 1% of sales would be the expectation, the gross expectation for tariffs in 2026 before considering any impact from the recently announced tariffs on truck chassis. We're still working through suppliers on that. As you move from the third to the fourth quarter of this year, I think it will be largely neutral we saw a bumper spike in the third quarter. I think that was just ramping up. We then launched price increases late in the quarter to mitigate that. So I think going forward, we should probably be a little less than covering the tariffs moving into 2026. So a smidge of a major margin degradation from tariffs as we look forward. But I can say, at the same time, we're doing some pretty significant work around procurement and the supply chain making sure we get our fair share of the ag exemptions that are available to us.

We continue to work those. We continue to work with suppliers. We've got a significant team ramping up to drive procurement savings. So I would not expect from '25 to '26 any significant significant margin degradation from tariffs alone. Yes, in the first part of the year, you're going to see a little bit more of that because there was none in the first quarter of 2025. Does that help?

That's very helpful. My final question is more conceptual. Again, sticking with industrial. -- look, it's pretty clear that the vegetation portion of the business is at a cycle bottom. Orders are already getting better, and that's probably going to pick up in 2026. We're seeing that with small tractors. -- maybe lower rates are going to have to help your forestry business. So that part of the business seems to have reasonable visibility. But in industrial this is where, at least to me, things are a little bit trickier because we have seen very good demand over the past few years. And there is a question as to the sustainability of this demand in the context that a lot of this in U.S. dollars that have been allocated post coated have been frankly spend and now we sort of have to ponder where we are in terms of the needs or the various replacement cycles that these municipalities have for various types of products that you sell in the segment.

So kind of a complicated question, I guess, but what is your perspective on the sustainability of demand in this segment. And as you think about your goals that you have outlined, which are reasonably ambitious, what are some of the levers that you feel are within your control to be able to get this segment to perform in the kind of the sort of level that you have outlined?

Yes. So big broad question there. Good question. We're thinking a lot about it. The first thing that I would say is I think you're spot on with respect to the way you're reading the end markets and the way we think about it. We've had tremendous amount of money inserted into certainly the U.S. economy coming out of COVID around the infrastructure or from the infrastructure acts, job reduction acts, et cetera. That has poured a lot of money into the economy and boosted it. And you can see it in the results, we've grown, I think we said 7 consecutive quarters of double-digit growth, 17% print in Q3. That's extraordinary performance. I think that as we look forward, that will slow. I think those end markets are still really, really attractive end markets. They're less cyclical. They're longer cycle in nature. So we certainly love those end markets. I think the really interesting thing is, there are pockets within that business that also are really exciting that may surprise on the upside.

So take hydro excavation as an example. This is something where there are state and local mandates driving the demand for the need for these types of products, which we sell the penetration in that market is still fairly low, but the acceptance is growing quite rapidly. It's supported federally by OSHA. You see a lot of movement you see from an environmental perspective, those types of products are desired in demand. So you take that submarket within the, let's call it, excavation of vacuum group section within the Industrial division. You're going to see outsized performance there. I think a lot of the third-party data would suggest that's got 6%, 7% annual growth rate demand behind it. That's really exciting stuff. That's 1 pocket within this. I think the second thing other than the drumbeat around product innovation that we're going to have is M&A, right? I think we can target very attractive companies that have above-average EBITDA margins that will be accretive to our profile.

So all of those things really -- we're really excited about even if the broader industrial end markets cool a bit as we roll off some of this heavy infrastructure spend. It's still really an exciting time to be part of Alamo that's super helpful. I look forward to seeing you in Chicago next week.

This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to management for any closing remarks.

Thank you all for participating, and it's a great time to be part of the Alamo Group. We look forward to speaking with you again.

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.