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Text: I'll now discuss the financial results.
We generated net sales of $270.4 million during the second quarter of 2021, which represents an increase of 44.2%, compared to $187.5 million during the second quarter of 2020.
The grows of -- the growth was mainly the result of increased demand for our products across all product lines, coupled with increased pricing, mostly related to raw material cost inflation.
More specifically, we posted net sales growth of four -- of 34.6% in our North American fenestration segment, 25.5% in our North American cabinet components segment, and 92.1% in our European fenestration segment, excluding the foreign exchange impact.
As a reminder, both of our manufacturing facilities in the U.K. were shut down late March of 2020 and did not resume operations until mid to late May last year.
In an effort to provide a more realistic comp, on a consolidated basis, we posted revenue growth of 20.6% in the first half of 2021 compared to the first half of 2019 prior to COVID.
We reported net income of $14.6 million, or $0.43 per diluted share, for the three months ended April 30, 2021, compared to $5.5 million, or $0.17 per diluted share, for the three months ended April 30, 2020.
The increase in net income was mostly due to higher volumes and improved operating leverage.
However, this improvement was somewhat offset by a $13 million increase in SG&A during the quarter, $9.7 million of which was related to the valuation of our stock-based comp awards, and $3.1 million of which was due to higher and more normalized medical claims.
On an adjusted basis, EBITDA for the quarter increased by 47.7% to $32.2 million, compared to $21.8 million during the same period of last year.
The improved profitability was again largely due to increased operating leverage from higher volumes.
From a margin standpoint, this increase represents adjusted EBITDA margin expansion of approximately 30 basis points on a consolidated basis.
However, we did realize significant adjusted EBITDA margin expansion in our North American and European fenestrations segments.
Margins were pressured in our North American cabinet components segment, primarily due to hardwood cost inflation.
Moving on to cash flow and the balance sheet.
Cash provided by operating activities was $32.4 million for the three months ended April 30, 2021, compared to $6.1 million for the three months ended April 30, 2020.
Free cash flow came in at $27.8 million for the quarter, compared to essentially zero free cash flow in Q2 of last year.
Year to date, as of April 30, 2021, cash provided by operating activities was $29 million, compared to $2.5 million for the same period of last year.
And free cash flow year to date as of April 30, 2021, was $19.2 million, compared to a negative $12.8 million during the same period of 2020.
Our strong free cash flow generation during the quarter enabled us to repay $25 million in bank debt and repurchased approximately 2 million of our stock.
Our balance sheet is strong.
Our liquidity position continues to improve, and our leverage ratio of net debt to last 12 months adjusted EBITDA improved to 0.3 times as of April 30, 2021.
We will remain focused on managing working capital and generating cash as the year progresses.
Based on our strong first-half results and ongoing conversations with our customers, we are raising our expectations for the year again and now expect approximately 20% sales growth in our North American fenestration segment, approximately 15% sales growth in our North American cabinet components segment, and approximately 40% sales growth in our European fenestration segment.
We're now comfortable providing the following full-year 2021 guidance for modeling purposes.
Net sales of $1.04 billion to $1.06 billion.
Adjusted EBITDA of $125 million to $130 million.
Depreciation of approximately $33 million.
Amortization of approximately $14 million.
SG&A of approximately $115 million.
Note, this is higher than previously expected due to an increase in stock-based comp expense and more normalized medical costs.
Interest expense of $2.5 million to $3 million.
Tax rate of approximately 27%.
Capex of $30 million to $35 million.
And free cash flow of $60 million to $65 million.
If you adjust for the expected increase in SG&A, the implied incremental adjusted EBITDA margin is in the low 20% range.
The takeaway here is that we have been successful at passing through price, and we are realizing operating leverage through increased volume.
As previously mentioned, we expect the typical seasonality in our business to be less pronounced this year.
So we feel it would be helpful to provide some direction on a quarterly basis for the remainder of the year.
From a cadence perspective for Q3 and on a consolidated basis, we expect net sales to be up by 28% to 30% year over year.
However, it will be challenging to realize adjusted EBITDA margin due to a decent comp, coupled with inflationary pressures.
Looking ahead to Q4, we will have a very tough comp.
We do expect net sales growth of approximately 10% year over year during the quarter on a consolidated basis.
But we do not expect to realize margin expansion.
To summarize, on a consolidated basis for the full year, we now expect to generate net sales growth of approximately 23% year over year to the midpoint of guidance while maintaining adjusted EBITDA margin in the low 12% range.
We are pleased to report another quarter of solid results as demand for our products remains strong and exceeded our expectations.
Operational performance was excellent across all segments.
Similar to most others in the building products space, we are facing inflationary pressures and labor shortages.
However, we continue to stay focused on operational excellence projects and other initiatives that improve our return on invested capital and our ability to generate cash flow.
We have had success in these areas and believe this focus will continue to generate value for our shareholders.
Prior to discussing the detail by segment, I'm going to provide some color on the ever-changing macroeconomic conditions of the markets in which we serve.
In the North American residential housing market, both new construction and repair and remodel remain strong.
Demand for windows and doors remains solid.
And according to many of our OEM customers, lead times to their consumers are being extended while backlogs continue to increase.
Specific to cabinet components, we believe that the semi-custom segment, which is the main segment we serve, again outperformed the stock segment.
As we mentioned in our last call, there was a significant shift in market share away from the semi-custom segment to the stock segment over the previous few years.
So the recent KCMA data is encouraging in that it shows the semi-custom segment continuing to outpace the start -- stock segment.
Demand for the products we manufacture in the U.K. and Germany also remains strong.
Although markets are slowly beginning to reopen in the U.K. and Europe, continued travel restrictions, coupled with an underbuilt housing market bodes well for demand in our markets.
One area that we continue to watch is a potential shortage in the supply of glass in the U.K. and Europe.
Further demand pressures and supply issues with this commodity could provide headwinds for our products in the second half of the year.
As was the case in our Q1 call, we remain optimistic on macroeconomic conditions in all the markets we serve.
However, we face challenges in the form of inflation and labor shortages.
With respect to inflation, I think it is accurate to say that we are seeing pressures in every raw material and freight category.
The most significant pressures are in the PVC resin, chemical feedstocks, and hardwood lumber species for cabinet components.
As a reminder, for the most part, we have contractual pass-throughs for the major raw materials we use in North America.
But there is often a contractual lag that can generally be anywhere from 30 to 90 days.
With a rapid rate of inflation today, these time lags are applying short-term margin pressures.
We do not have these contractual pass-throughs in Europe and the U.K., so our ability to pass on any increases through price becomes more important.
And for the most part, we continue to be successful in that regard.
In all regions, our customer base is passing along increases to the end consumer and the entire supply chain is following in kind.
We're not on an index, we have been successful at keeping inflation neutral so far.
As also discussed on the Q1 call, labor shortages have also been a challenge for most U.S. manufacturing companies, and Quanex is no exception.
This continued into Q2 and is ongoing.
We are hopeful that some of the recent government decisions to roll back unemployment benefits in certain states will have a favorable impact on this front.
But at this time, it's just too early to tell and margins are being pressured by overtime utilization rates.
I'll now go ahead and provide my comments on performance by segment for our fiscal second quarter.
Our North American fenestration segment generated revenue of $146.1 million in Q2, which was approximately 35% higher than prior-year Q2 and compares favorably to Ducker windows shipment growth of 10.8% for the calendar quarter ending March 31, 2021.
Prior-year COVID impact, combined with strong demand across all product lines, share gains in our screens business, and increased capacity utilization on our vinyl extrusion assets all contributed to the above-market performance.
Adjusted EBITDA of $20.6 million in the segment was approximately 54.1% higher than prior-year Q2.
Nonrecurring COVID impact, volume-related operating leverage, the implementation of annual pricing adjustments, operational improvements, and lower SG&A all contributed to the improved performance year over year.
For the first six months, this segment had revenue of $274.3 million and adjusted EBITDA of $36.9 million, which represents growth of 25.2% and 67.9%, respectively.
This also represents adjusted EBITDA margin expansion of approximately 340 basis points.
Our European fenestration segment generated revenue of $61.7 million in the second quarter, which is $32.5 million or approximately 111% higher than the prior year.
Excluding foreign exchange impact, this would equate to an increase of approximately 92%.
Strong demand for our products continues in both vinyl extrusions and spacers as the repair and remodel markets in the U.K. and continental Europe remain strong.
Adjusted EBITDA of $12.9 million for the quarter was $10 million better than the prior year, but it is important to remember that our U.K. plants were shut down for part of the prior-year comp period.
Also contributing to the strong results were volume-related operating leverage and pricing actions, which helped offset inflationary pressures.
On a year-to-date basis, revenue of $110.7 million and an adjusted EBITDA of $23.6 million resulted in margin expansion of approximately 840 basis points as compared to the first half of last year.
Our North American cabinet components segment reported net sales of $63.6 million in Q2, which was $12.9 million or approximately 26% better than prior year.
Note that this growth rate was slightly higher when compared to the latest KCMA data for the semi-custom segment which came in at 24.2% growth over the same period.
Favorable comps due to the COVID impact in Q2 of last year, higher index pricing, and higher order demand all contributed to solid revenue growth in the quarter.
Adjusted EBITDA was $3 million in this segment, which was 21.6% higher than prior year.
Although we are being impacted by the timing lag of our index pricing mechanisms on the hardwood, operating leverage from higher volume and incremental pricing on certain products all contributed to holding adjusted EBITDA margin relatively flat versus prior-year Q2.
In fact, the rapid increase in hardwood prices has impacted adjusted EBITDA by $1.7 million year to date.
And if we adjust for this inflation, we would have realized approximately 180 basis points of margin expansion in this segment.
On a year-to-date basis, operational improvements and volume-related leverage gains have helped offset the timing-related material impacts and resulted in margin expansion of approximately 150 basis points.
Unallocated corporate and other costs were $4.3 million for the quarter, which is $7.2 million higher than the prior year.
As Scott mentioned earlier, the primary drivers of this increase were stock-based compensation expense, operating incentive accruals, and more normalized medical expenses as our employees and their families have started to feel more comfortable going back to their doctors.
As I mentioned earlier, our priority has been meeting customer demand, furthering our operational excellence programs, optimizing our cash flow, and improving return on invested capital across all segments of our business.
Despite inflationary headwinds, we continue to make progress in these areas and this work has strengthened our balance sheet by enabling us to further pay down debt during the quarter, while still repurchasing approximately $2 million in treasury stock.
Going forward, our capital deployment strategy will remain intact as we execute on our path to being debt-free.
We will opportunistically evaluate stock repurchases and continue to invest in projects that grow revenue and improve our ROIC.
In addition, the board recently approved the capacity expansion project of our spacer plant in Germany and we're also currently evaluating additional capacity projects in our screens and cabinet component business in North America.
Note that due to the extended lead times of equipment, we don't expect to realize any benefits from these projects until next year at the earliest.
In summary, our outlook on demand for our products remains strong for the remainder of the year.
We are executing on our plan and performing well from an operational standpoint.
With these points in mind, on a consolidated basis, we're confident in our ability to deliver revenue growth in the low-20% range this year, while maintaining adjusted EBITDA margin in the low-12% range despite the increasing inflationary pressures.
And with that, operator, we are now ready to take questions.

user
compname posts quarterly earnings per share $0.43.
qtrly net sales $270.4 million versus $187.5 million.
qtrly earnings per share $0.43.
qtrly adjusted earnings per share $0.43.
sees fiscal 2021 consolidated net sales of about $1.04 billion to $1.06 billion.
expects to generate about $125 million to $130 million in adjusted ebitda in fiscal 2021.

assistant