Griffon (GFF) Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

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Date

Thursday, May 7, 2026 at 8:30 a.m. ET

Call participants

• Chairman and Chief Executive Officer — Ronald J. Kramer
• Chief Financial Officer and Senior Vice President — Brian G. Harris

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Takeaways

• Revenue -- $422 million, down 1% year over year, reflecting a 6% volume decline in residential partially offset by a 5% improvement in price and mix.
• Adjusted EBITDA -- $98 million, decreased 4% year over year due to lower revenue, unfavorable volume and overhead absorption, and increased material costs, including steel.
• EBITDA margin -- 23.2%, declined by 60 basis points from the prior year quarter.
• Gross profit -- $192 million, with a gross margin of 45.5%, compared to $198 million and 46.5% in the prior year quarter.
• Selling, general, and administrative expenses -- $105 million or 24.8% of revenue, versus $107 million or 25% in the prior year quarter.
• GAAP income from continuing operations -- $47 million or $1.03 per share, down from $50 million or $1.06 per share in the prior year quarter.
• Adjusted net income from continuing operations -- $48 million or $1.05 per share, compared to $49 million or $1.05 per share in the prior year.
• Year-to-date free cash flow from continuing operations -- $101 million, compared to $114 million in the prior year period.
• Net capital expenditures year-to-date -- $18 million, versus $26 million in the prior period.
• Net debt -- $1.3 billion as of March 31, 2026, with net debt-to-EBITDA leverage at 2.4 times, improved from 2.6 times at the end of last year’s second quarter.
• Stock repurchases -- 422,000 shares repurchased in the quarter for $33 million at an average price of $78.03 per share; $247 million remains under authorization as of March 31.
• Cumulative buybacks since April 2023 -- $611 million (11.5 million shares) at an average price of $53.21; outstanding shares reduced by 20% relative to the total as of Q2 fiscal 2023.
• Dividend -- Quarterly dividend of $0.22 per share authorized, the 59th consecutive quarterly dividend, with a compound annual growth rate exceeding 19% since 2012.
• Guidance -- Fiscal 2026 guidance reaffirmed: $1.8 billion revenue, $458 million adjusted EBITDA, and free cash flow from continuing operations expected to exceed income from continuing operations.
• Strategic actions -- Joint venture involving AMES U.S. and Canadian businesses expected to close by June 2026, providing $100 million in cash proceeds and $161 million in second lien paid-in-kind notes, with Griffon (NYSE:GFF) retaining 43% ownership.
• Segment changes -- From this quarter, results reflect a single operating segment, with Global AMES now reported as discontinued operations.
• Price increases -- Clopay implemented mid-single-digit price increases effective at the end of March.
• Product innovation -- Clopay received “best in show” recognition for innovation at the International Builders Show for two consecutive years.
• Interest expense -- Fiscal-year guidance is $93 million, excluding any interest income from the anticipated joint venture, with $161 million in PIK notes at a 10% rate noted as a future income stream.

Summary

Management detailed the initiation of a joint venture for AMES U.S. and Canadian businesses, projecting significant liquidity events and a 43% retained stake. The AMES United Kingdom business is being exited due to “persistent economic challenges,” and the strategic process continues for AMES Australia. Clopay’s product portfolio received industry recognition for innovation, with new technologies and pipeline advancements discussed on the call. Clopay’s customer mix remains skewed toward repair and remodel, minimizing reliance on new residential construction. The company stated that M&A is not a strategic priority, with capital continuing to be allocated toward buybacks, deleveraging, and dividends. Improvements in leverage and execution of cost management were highlighted, particularly as the company transitions to focus on North American building products.

• Harris said there is a “4- or 5-month lag” between steel purchasing and cost realization, providing insight into margin timing.
• Kramer emphasized, “Clopay is a better, best solution,” positioning the brand to target higher-end repair and remodel demand.
• The quarterly cadence of free cash flow remains seasonal, and management expects the second half of the fiscal year to be the strongest for free cash flow.
• The innovation pipeline includes Clopay’s VertiStack and C-Power technologies, aiming to drive improved mix and premium product sales.
• Integration of Hunter and Clopay has produced early collaborative results in commercial projects and product cross-selling.
• Management reaffirmed that the removal of AMES businesses does not materially reduce the pro forma cash generation profile.
• Kramer stated, “M&A is not on the table because our view is the cheapest and best acquisition we can make is in the market on a daily basis.”

Industry glossary

• Clopay: Griffon's residential and commercial garage door business specializing in innovation and industry-leading solutions.
• PIK notes: “Paid-in-kind” notes, a debt instrument where interest is paid in securities rather than cash, often used in deal structures.
• C-Power: Patented Clopay technology enabling electrical functionality in garage door panels, including privacy features such as “click-to-conceal” windows.
• VertiStack Avante: Clopay’s garage door system featuring a space-saving vertical stacking design, recognized for product innovation.

Full Conference Call Transcript

Ronald Kramer: Thanks, Brian. Good morning, everyone. Thanks for joining us. On February 5, we announced a series of strategic actions to focus Griffon into a pure-play North American building products company. These actions included the formation of a joint venture involving our AMES North America businesses and the strategic review of our AMES Australia and AMES United Kingdom businesses. As a result of these actions, starting with our second quarter earnings release today, our continuing operations from financial performance is presented as a single segment. The Global AMES businesses are now reported as discontinued operations. We're very pleased with our financial results at the halfway point of our fiscal year.

Our team's performance has been solid, showing resiliency managing through uncertain global economic conditions. We continue to perform well in soft U.S. housing and commercial construction markets. I'm proud to report Clopay continues to assert its position as the leading garage door provider with best-in-class product innovation. This year, Clopay was recognized for the second year in a row as one of the best in show for its pioneering innovation at the International Builders Show.

As a reminder, last year, Clopay was recognized as the best of IBS across the entire building products industry for its groundbreaking VertiStack Avante garage door, an innovative system that replaces traditional overhead tracks with a compact vertical stacking design, resulting in a cleaner aesthetic and open ceiling space. This year, Clopay won a best of IBS award in the window and door category for its Avante door with C-Power enabled click-to-conceal panels. The patented C-Power technology delivers electrical power directly to the garage door panels, opening up a new world of potential for these doors. The first products to use C-Power is Clopay's click-to-conceal panels, which allows the door to instantly transition its windows from clear to opaque.

This is an ideal solution for homeowners who use their garage as flexible living space or design forward commercial spaces like restaurants and automotive showrooms, offering daylight and outdoor views when desired and privacy and security when needed. We're excited about the bright future we see for powering the garage door panels and the C-Power product. We congratulate our Clopay team for this remarkable achievement of receiving prestigious recognition from the international builder products industry for 2 years in a row. Even beyond VertiStack and C-Power, we have a deep pipeline of future product innovations to maintain our position as a leader of mission-critical door solutions. Okay. Let's go to strategic actions.

We continue to expect to close our joint venture with ONCAP, which will include our AMES U.S. and Canadian businesses by the end of June 2026. Griffon will receive $100 million of cash proceeds when the joint venture formation is completed as well as $161 million second lien paid-in-kind notes from the joint venture. Griffon will also own 43% and will have representation on the joint venture's Board of Directors. The strategic process for AMES Australia is active and ongoing, and we'll update you when we have more to report. With respect to the AMES United Kingdom business, after careful consideration of our available options, we've made the difficult decision to exit the business because of persistent economic challenges.

We expect all of these strategic actions to be completed by the end of the calendar year. Let's go to capital allocation. During the second quarter, we repurchased $33 million of stock or 422,000 shares at an average of $78.03 per share. At March 31, $247 million remained under the repurchase authorization. We continue to believe that our stock is a compelling value. Since April 2023 and through March, we've repurchased $611 million worth of stock, 11.5 million shares at an average price of $53.21. These repurchases have reduced Griffon's outstanding by 20% relative to the total shares outstanding at the end of the second quarter of fiscal '23.

Also yesterday, the Griffon's Board authorized a regularly quarterly dividend of $0.22 per share payable on June 17 to shareholders of record on May 29, marking the 59th consecutive quarterly dividend to shareholders. Our dividend has grown at an annualized compounded rate of more than 19% since we initiated dividends in 2012. These actions reflect the strength and resiliency of our business as well as our continued confidence in our strategic plan and outlook. I'll turn it over to Brian for a bit more financial detail.

Brian Harris: Thank you, Ron. I want to reiterate these financial results reflect Griffon's reporting structure as a single segment. All results are presented on a continuing operations basis with prior periods restated on the same basis. More details are provided in our earnings release and will be provided in Griffon's 10-Q filing. Second quarter revenue of $422 million reflected our typical seasonally low volume. Year-over-year revenue decreased 1% with a 6% reduction in volume driven by residential being partially offset by a 5% improvement in price and mix. Second quarter adjusted EBITDA of $98 million decreased 4% year-over-year, driven by the decreased revenue, the unfavorable impact of decreased volume and overhead absorption and increased material costs, including steel.

EBITDA margin was 23.2%, a decrease of 60 basis points from the prior year quarter. Gross profit for the quarter was $192 million with a 45.5% gross margin compared to $198 million in the prior year quarter with gross profit margin of 46.5%. Second quarter selling, general and administrative expenses were $105 million or 24.8% of revenue compared to prior year of $107 million or 25% of revenue. Second quarter GAAP income from continuing operations was $47 million or $1.03 per share compared to $50 million in the prior year quarter or $1.06 per share.

Excluding items that affect comparability from both periods, current quarter adjusted net income from continuing operations was $48 million or $1.05 per share compared to the prior year of $49 million or $1.05 per share. Year-to-date free cash flow from continuing operations was $101 million compared to $114 million in the prior year. Year-to-date net capital expenditures were $18 million compared to $26 million in the prior year. We expect free cash flow from continuing operations for the full fiscal year to be in excess of income from continuing operations.

Regarding our balance sheet and liquidity, as of March 31, 2026, we had net debt of $1.3 billion and net debt-to-EBITDA leverage of 2.4x as calculated based on our debt covenants. This compares to 2.6x leverage at the end of last year's second quarter. Our net debt and leverage are in line with our year-end September 2025, even after returning $72 million to shareholders through dividends and stock buybacks during the first half of the fiscal year. Regarding our expectations for the year, we are maintaining our fiscal 2026 guidance based on the results we have seen through the first half while presenting it to reflect our new reporting structure.

We continue to expect revenue of $1.8 billion for fiscal 2026 on a continuing operations basis and adjusted EBITDA of $458 million, which excludes certain charges that affect comparability. We continue to expect free cash flow from continuing operations to exceed income from continuing operations. We also expect capital expenditures to be $50 million, depreciation to be $27 million and amortization to be $15 million. Fiscal year 2026 interest expense is expected to be $93 million, excluding any interest income that may be recognized this year from our anticipated AMES joint venture. Normalized tax rate should be 28%.

I'd like to reiterate that our guidance, as stated, is unchanged from expectations for the former Home & Building Products segment, Hunter Fan and unallocated costs that we originally outlined in November and again in February. Now I'll turn the call back over to Ron.

Ronald Kramer: Thanks, Brian. Our fiscal 2026 remains on track with our guidance. Our teams are executing well as evidenced by our solid operating performance this quarter and year-to-date. We remain confident in our financial outlook. We're optimistic that the residential and commercial markets will return to growth and expect to realize substantial operating leverage as activity improves. With respect to capital allocations, we're committed to using our strong operating performance and free cash flow to drive a capital allocation strategy that delivers long-term value for our shareholders. This includes supporting our quarterly dividend, opportunistically repurchasing shares and reducing debt. In closing, I'd like to express my sincere appreciation for our Griffon employees who've continued to drive the success of our business.

We're grateful for their contributions. Operator, we're ready for questions.

Operator: [Operator Instructions] And our first question will come from Trey Grooms with Stephens.

Unknown Analyst: Ron and Brian, this is Ethan on for Trey. As we think about your fiscal second half, you reiterated the full year guide, but any changes to the underlying assumptions around the end markets? I think that the prior guide had contemplated flat volume in commercial and residential maybe understandably a bit softer. So any changes to those assumptions, particularly how those flow through in the second half? And also, we know that the HBP pricing laps in the fiscal second half. So just any more color on top line cadence would be great.

Brian Harris: Sure. We expect the second half quarters to be similar to what we've seen over the last several quarters. As you mentioned, residential volume will continue to be soft. Commercial roughly flat, and we'll see benefits from price and mix. I will point out that Clopay had price increases recently issued, mid-single digit that were effective at the end of March. So we have another price increase that has started. And overall, we expect second half to look similar to the second half last year.

Ronald Kramer: And the only thing I'd add to that is I'll remind everyone that the second half is our strongest free cash flow part of our cycle.

Unknown Analyst: Got it. And picking up on that free cash flow point, in the past, you've guided to $1 billion in cumulative free cash flow in the period was fiscal '25 to fiscal '27. But obviously, the business looks a bit different now, but the cash generation remains really strong. So just any more detail on sort of the pro forma cash generation profile of the current business, maybe relative to any prior targets you had provided would be very helpful.

Brian Harris: Sure. So the cash flow of our businesses was and is primarily generated by the Clopay business, and we still have the Hunter business, and we'll get the cash flow from that as well. It will be slightly less than historical as we've taken out the AMES tools businesses, but those were not significant cash generators.

Ronald Kramer: And there's a balance sheet impact from all of the discontinued operations, strategic planning that we're doing that will continue to delever.

Operator: And our next question will come from Bob Labick with CJS Securities.

Bob Labick: Congrats on the strong operations and on the awards of HBP you talked about earlier. Yes. So I wanted to kind of stick with the innovation pipeline, and thanks for the info on VertiStack. And is it C-Power as well. Can you talk about the -- your innovation pipeline and what's helping you drive growth kind of beyond the market? Because obviously, we're in a lull in the market a little bit, but how does this innovation compare to your past innovation cycles? And how should this help you outpace the market in terms of growth?

Ronald Kramer: So I'd just say that the fundamentals of our business have not changed. And our execution of the plan that we've laid out over the last several years continues. Clopay is the leading brand with the best dealer network and the best big box distribution. It's a business that has evolved that is both residential and commercial, that has very low exposure to new home construction. We long term, would love to see the housing markets recover and see new home construction expand. But the core of our business on the residential side has been repair and remodel, and that continues to be the driving force behind Clopay's profitability.

The commercial business that we bought 7 years ago, integrated into our business and have come to position to be a leading commercial rolling steel security products and in the future, mission-critical infrastructure solution provider is in development. This is an excellent business with very low CapEx, 2% CapEx that has growth ahead of it in both the residential market, the commercial market, and we just are going to continue to execute that plan. The result of that is the housing markets, while they have not gotten better, they continue to be a repair and remodel driven for us.

Bob Labick: Got it. Okay. Great. And then regarding steel, you mentioned it briefly in the prepared remarks. Steel prices have obviously crept up a little bit. It's in the middle of a long multiyear range still. But could you just remind us kind of inventory that turns the impact of steel and your ability to price and just the timing and the lag if there is still one and how that tends to work?

Brian Harris: There generally is a 4- or 5-month lag of purchase to actual realization of the cost.

Operator: We'll hear next from Collin Verron with Deutsche Bank.

Collin Verron: Price/mix continues to be very favorable. I guess I just want to dive into maybe parsing out the difference between price and mix. And I think that there is a lot of room for mix. So I guess I was just curious as to sort of your long-term expectations on driving mix improvement and how meaningful of a lever that could be for you guys, call it, the next couple of years?

Brian Harris: Sure. So for the quarter, we saw the benefit being more price than mix. And going forward, and I point back to Ron's comments from a few moments ago, we continue to innovate those products that we come out are generally higher-end new technology products that generally will provide better revenue and mix metrics.

Collin Verron: That's helpful. And I guess just from a homeowner perspective, I guess, or an end user perspective, have you seen a bifurcation or continued bifurcation in sort of high end versus low end that's supporting this? Or is it pretty consistent across the sort of different price points in terms of demand strength?

Ronald Kramer: Sure. Clopay is a better, best solution. So we address the higher end of repair and remodel. And while there's no question that there is weakness in the consumer, particularly at the lower end, our business and our ability to sell through both big boxes and the dealer network continues to meet our expectations.

Operator: We'll hear next from Tim Wojs with Baird.

Timothy Wojs: Maybe just kind of first question, Ron, now that you've kind of -- we're kind of focusing on kind of the HBP business on a go-forward basis. Is there any sort of change to how you think about allocating kind of capital going forward between buybacks and potentially acquisitions? Or is there no real change in your eyes at all?

Ronald Kramer: Well, I'd say look at what we've done. We bought back 20% of our outstanding. Our cash flow is substantial over the last several years, and our expectations is for it to continue to build. We have a combination of businesses that we've streamlined and brought into focus that is going to give us a strong cash flow position to make choices about share repurchases deleveraging. I will say M&A is not on the table because our view is the cheapest and best acquisition we can make is in the market on a daily basis.

Timothy Wojs: Okay. Okay. That's really helpful. And then I guess just on the retail portion within the business. I know parts of that, specifically the fan business have been challenged over the last 18 months. Have you seen any sort of improvement in that business on a sequential basis? Or is it still pretty tough?

Brian Harris: It's at the moment stable. We have seen, as you said, softness over the last several years now with the consumer being weak. But at the moment, it's stable and the business is in very good shape and ready for when the consumer returns.

Operator: [Operator Instructions] We'll go next to Julio Romero with Sidoti & Company.

Unknown Analyst: This is Justin on for Julio. Maybe starting on HBP integration. Can you share where you're seeing early wins on the Hunter and Clopay collaboration? Is it through distribution, dealer relationships or even on the product and innovation side?

Brian Harris: Yes. So we have been and will now with those businesses working closer together, continue to realize the benefits of leveraging on the commercial side, the Hunter Commercial fan -- and that we share projects and put fans into each other -- sorry, put fans into the Clopay side of the business. There has been a project where we have created a garage type fan that has gotten very good reception from our dealer network, and it's in early stages, but we're looking forward to that continuing. Early days, and we have expectation that we're going to be able to build both the residential and commercial.

Unknown Analyst: Very helpful. And then turning to the joint venture. Your $93 million interest expense guidance excludes interest income from the anticipated joint venture. Can you help us size that income stream?

Brian Harris: We will have $161 million of PIK notes with a 10% interest rate.

Operator: And this now concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the floor back over to Ron Kramer for closing comments.

Ronald Kramer: Thank you for joining us today. We're excited about the road ahead, confident in our strategy and committed to continuing to deliver superior returns for our shareholders. We look forward to updating you in August.

Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your participation. This does conclude today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines, and have a wonderful day.

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