TKR - The Timken Company (TKR) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript
2024-02-05 22:12:04 ET
The Timken Company (TKR)
Q4 2023 Earnings Conference Call
February 05, 2024, 11:00 AM ET
Company Participants
Neil Frohnapple - Head, IR
Richard Kyle - President and CEO
Philip Fracassa - CFO
Conference Call Participants
Steve Volkmann - Jefferies
Stanley Elliott - Stifel
David Raso - Evercore
Steve Barger - KeyBanc Capital Markets
Bryan Blair - Oppenheimer
Mike Shlisky - D.A. Davidson
Joe Ritchie - Goldman Sachs
Angel Castillo - Morgan Stanley
Chris Dankert - Loop Capital
Michael Feniger - Bank of America
Presentation
Operator
Good morning, everyone. My name is Bruno and I'll be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to Timken's Fourth Quarter Earnings Release Conference Call. [Operator Instructions]
Mr. Frohnapple, you may begin your conference.
Neil Frohnapple
Thanks, Bruno, and welcome, everyone, to our fourth quarter 2023 earnings conference call. This is Neil Frohnapple, Head of Investor Relations for The Timken Company. We appreciate you joining us today. Before we begin our remarks this morning, I want to point out that we have posted presentation materials on the company's website that we will reference as part of today's review of the quarterly results. You can also access this material through the download feature on the earnings call webcast link.
With me today are The Timken Company's President and CEO, Rich Kyle; and Phil Fracassa, our Chief Financial Officer. We will have opening comments this morning from both Rich and Phil before we open up the call for your questions. During the Q&A, I would ask that you please limit your questions to one question and one follow-up at a time to allow everyone a chance to participate. During today's call, you may hear forward-looking statements related to our future financial results, plans and business operations. Our actual results may differ materially from those projected or implied due to a variety of factors, which we describe in greater detail in today's press release and in our reports filed with the SEC, which are available on the timken.com website.
We have included reconciliations between non-GAAP financial information and its GAAP equivalent in the press release and presentation materials. Today's call is copyrighted by The Timken Company, and without expressed written consent, we prohibit any use, recording or transmission of any portion of the call. With that, I would like to thank you for your interest in The Timken Company.
And I will now turn the call over to Rich.
Richard Kyle
Thanks, Neil. Good morning, and thank you for joining our call.
Timken delivered a record fourth quarter, which concluded an excellent year. Revenue was up 1% for the quarter with the benefit of acquisitions and currency slightly more than offsetting a 5% organic decline in revenue. As expected, wind energy in China were the largest headwinds in organic revenue, with wind revenue down more than 30% from prior year.
Given the significant decline in wind and softening demand across many other industrial markets, we responded well to the situation and delivered a very solid quarter. We expanded margins 70 basis points versus last year, despite the lower volume levels. Price-cost remained positive and sequential cost increases continued to moderate.
We continued to adjust our inventory and production levels down to both normalized supply chain performance as well as softer demand. Earnings per share of $1.37 was a record for the fourth quarter and was up $0.03 over last year....
The Timken Company (TKR) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript