EnerSys - Earnings Call - Q4 2025

Executive Summary

• Q4 FY2025 delivered net sales of $974.8M (+7% YoY) and adjusted diluted EPS of $2.97 (+43% YoY), exceeding company guidance and modestly beating Wall Street consensus; GAAP diluted EPS was $2.41 (+63% YoY).
• Gross margin expanded 320 bps YoY to 31.2%; gross margin ex-45X advanced manufacturing credits was 26.6% (+270 bps YoY), reflecting price/mix, Bren-Tronics contribution, and segment productivity gains.
• Segment performance was broad-based: Energy Systems net sales +8% YoY with adjusted operating margin of 8.7% (+400 bps), Motive Power adjusted operating margin 17.0% (+240 bps), and Specialty revenue +21% YoY with adjusted operating margin 8.5% (+270 bps).
• Q1 FY2026 outlook guides net sales to $830M–$870M, adjusted EPS $2.03–$2.13 (including $35M–$40M of IRC 45X benefits), and pauses full-year quantitative guidance amid tariff uncertainty; management asserts Q1 will be the low point with margins and EPS growth (ex-45X) expected to outpace revenue for FY2026.
• Strategic/catalyst: tariff mitigation playbook, maintenance-free conversion (29% of Motive Power), data center and A&D momentum, and DOE lithium program progress; leadership transition to Shawn O’Connell finalized May 23, 2025.

What Went Well and What Went Wrong

What Went Well

• “We delivered 7% revenue growth, our second-highest revenue quarter ever, and achieved record adjusted diluted EPS of $1.86 per share excluding 45X benefits … and $2.97 including 45X benefits, +43%”.
• Energy Systems margin expansion and demand improvement (data centers +22% YoY, signs of U.S. communications recovery); adjusted operating earnings in ES grew for the fifth consecutive quarter.
• Motive Power mix shift: maintenance-free products reached a record 29% of segment sales; adjusted operating margin rose to 17.0% with earnings +15% YoY.
• Specialty/A&D strength and Bren-Tronics outperformance drove revenue +21% and adjusted operating margin +270 bps YoY.

What Went Wrong

• Tariff/macro uncertainty: stranded tariff costs (~$5M) expected to pressure Q1; order moderation and choppy near-term (Motive Power Americas Q4 orders -14% YoY).
• FX headwinds impacted results intra-year; lead times in Energy Systems extend revenue conversion timing despite order growth.
• Class 8 truck OEM recovery paused; transportation order rates choppy as OEMs revise forecasts.

Transcript

Operator (participant)

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to EnerSys fourth quarter and full year, fiscal 2025, results. At this time, all participants are on a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there'll be a question-and-answer session. To ask a question during the session, you'll need to press star one one on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star one one again. Please be advised that a conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Lisa Hartman, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Lisa Hartman (VP of Investor Relations)

Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us today to discuss EnerSys fourth quarter and full year, fiscal 2025, results. On the call with me today are David Schaffer, EnerSys Chief Executive Officer; O'Connell, EnerSys President and Chief Operating Officer and incoming CEO; and Andrea Funk, EnerSys Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Last evening, we published our fourth quarter and fiscal year 2025 results under our 10-K with the SEC, which are available on our website. We also posted slides that we will be referencing during this call. The slides are available on the presentations page within the Investor Relations section of our website. As a reminder, we will be presenting certain forward-looking statements on this call that are subject to uncertainties and changes in circumstances. Our actual results may differ materially from these forward-looking statements for a number of reasons.

These statements are made only as of today. For a list of forward-looking statements and factors which could affect our future results, please refer to our recent Form 8-K and 10-K filed with the SEC. In addition, we will be presenting certain non-GAAP financial measures, particularly concerning our adjusted consolidated operating earnings performance, free cash flow, adjusted diluted earnings per share, and adjusted EBITDA, which excludes certain items. For an explanation of the difference between the GAAP and non-GAAP financial metrics, please see our company's Form 8-K, which includes our press release dated May 21, 2025. Now I'll turn the call over to EnerSys CEO, David Shaffer.

David Shaffer (CEO)

Thank you, Lisa, and good morning. Please turn to slide four for a review of our fourth quarter and full year performance. EnerSys delivered a very strong fourth quarter, demonstrating the earnings power of our balanced business. We grew revenue 7%, our second highest revenue quarter ever, and delivered record adjusted diluted EPS of $1.86, excluding 45X benefits. Highlights included record motive power margins, significant margin expansion in energy systems and specialty, and strong contributions from the Bren-Tronics acquisition. In energy systems, we saw growth in data centers and continued moderate recovery in communications. Motive power generated 15% earnings growth on similar volumes to prior year fourth quarter, with increased maintenance-free products reaching a record 29% of segment sales. Specialty benefited from sustained strengths in A&D markets and outperformance from Bren-Tronics.

Full year revenue was $3.6 billion, with meaningful gains in adjusted gross margin, adjusted operating earnings, and adjusted earnings per share even before 45X benefits. We made meaningful progress in fiscal year 2025. We executed our strategy in a challenging environment. We expanded our share in the attractive and growing defense market, grew our higher margin maintenance-free offerings, reduced cost, optimized our manufacturing footprint, invested in high-speed, lower-cost, flexible domestic production capacity, and developed new product offerings, strengthening our foundation for future growth. As announced in November, today marks my final day as CEO. Shawn O'Connell takes the helm as CEO tomorrow. With deep industry experience and proven leadership across EnerSys, I am confident he will lead the company to continued success. It has been an honor to serve as EnerSys CEO.

I would like to thank our employees for their consistent hard work and dedication in supporting each other and our customers every day, our board of directors for their support, and our shareholders for your trust. I will now turn it over to Shawn to take you through more detail on our results and business drivers. Shawn.

Shawn O'Connell (President and COO)

Thank you, Dave, for your leadership and for positioning EnerSys for future success. I know I speak for the entire EnerSys family in wishing you the very best in your next chapter. Please turn to slide six. As I begin my remarks today, I would like to start with my perspective on our business. EnerSys enjoys deep customer relationships and leading market share positions in diverse end markets. The key to our future growth is that our solutions help our valued customers address their shared mounting concerns in two main areas: energy security and labor scarcity. Our products help our customers manage their energy costs and consumption while also making it possible for them to perform the same missions with fewer people through maintenance-free products and automation, enabled by intelligent stored energy solutions.

Over the past six months, we have taken my strategic hypotheses, tested them with external advisors, and are finalizing a focused roadmap to go deeper in helping our customers address these challenges while resetting our operations and reinforcing intense discipline on ROIC. There are opportunities for us to narrow our focus on select growth verticals, expand our service capabilities, and achieve further operational efficiencies, which I will share more with you on our August call and upcoming quarters. In the near term, our focus is on discipline execution as we move through a transitional period shaped by evolving macro and policy dynamics. Before I get into the quarter, I'd like to take a step back to address the broader macroeconomic environment, our tariff exposure, and our approach to mitigating associated risks. Please turn to slide seven.

In March, we established a dedicated cross-functional tariff task force dedicated solely to analyzing, coordinating, and mitigating tariff impacts, considering both supply chain and pricing actions. This team is also monitoring both the tertiary impact of tariffs on inflationary pressures as well as, and perhaps most importantly, market dynamics, both positive and negative, from suppressed demand to opportunities where our global footprint offers competitive advantages. Thanks to our longstanding practices of producing in-region for region, onshoring from China, dual sourcing, and footprint rationalization, we already have structural buffers in place. We are committed to fully mitigating any financial impact to our shareholders and see OpEx reductions as an effective lever for what cannot be offset by supply or pricing actions.

To put our tariff exposure in perspective, about two-thirds of our global revenue comes from the U.S., in which 80% of our U.S. supply is either domestic or USMCA trade compliant. Only 5% of this is sourced from China, where the highest tariff rates still exist. At current tariff levels, our direct tariff exposure is approximately $92 million, down from $160 million prior to the May 12th U.S. administration updates. We intend to fully offset this impact but expect some near-term friction in Q1 due to stranded tariffs that can't be passed on to customers and shifting customer order patterns. The biggest unknown to us is timing and the scope of broader inflation and/or slowdown effects across the industrial sector. That said, we are prepared for a range of outcomes guided by our proven and refined playbook.

We will remain well-positioned to weather both tariffs and a potential downturn if one materializes. Please turn to slide eight. In addition to our resilient balance sheet and conservative capital structure, EnerSys has a number of structural advantages to help us mitigate economic downturns. First, a large portion, about 60% of our business, follows GDP independent cycles with limited sensitivity to general economic conditions as they follow their own investment timelines. This includes A&D and data centers, which are currently enjoying robust market momentum, as well as network communications, which is poised for further recovery and expansion. Second, our global manufacturing footprint provides flexibility in our production and distribution capabilities, which enable us to respond and leverage varying geopolitical dynamics by market better than many of our competitors. Third, our primary operating capital investments have historically been a cash generator during recessionary periods.

Finally, we maintain consistent OpEx discipline, enabling us to respond quickly when needed. While shifting conditions may temporarily affect market rhythm, we remain well-positioned to expediently protect both earnings and cash flow. Please turn to slide nine. I'd now like to turn your attention to current business performance. Our overall book-to-bill in the fourth quarter was just over one, with energy systems and specialty above one, offset by motive power below one. Energy systems had positive order rates for the third consecutive quarter, driven both by data centers and communications. In specialty, A&D projects and orders have been robust. It's worth noting that we did see some order moderation early in the first quarter as customers adjusted to tariff-related developments, but activity rebounded quickly when tariff actions were paused.

To provide more visibility in what we are seeing today versus prior year, our first-quarter year-to-date order rates for motive power are up 16%. Energy systems are up 10%, and specialty are up 33% with the Bren-Tronics add. While we anticipate demand signals to be variable in the coming months, we view this as a temporary recalibration phase and not a structural change in market trajectory. Now I'll provide some more detail on the business drivers behind our strong fiscal Q4 performance. In our energy systems business, I am pleased with the team's execution, nearly doubling adjusted operating earnings. These improved results highlight the benefits of structural improvement actions, along with a 22% year-on-year increase in quarterly data center revenue and continued signs of recovery in U.S. communications spending.

While we are encouraged by early project work and network expansion planning in U.S. communications, particularly driven by AI-related data demand, many customers are selectively managing capital expenditures. As such, we expect the pace of network expansion to remain gradual and potentially uneven in the upcoming quarters. Order rates were sequentially higher with particular strength in the Americas. Continued sequential order rate growth in EMEA is encouraging as a sign that the regional spend is increasing and off prior lows. It's important to note that while we are seeing strong order rates, lead times can extend the revenue conversion timeline in this business. Further, although the segment is one most exposed to tariffs and supply chain disruptions, we have significantly improved our monitoring and ability to respond more quickly than in the past.

Finally, as an additional future tailwind, our services revenues continue to be challenging for us as an increasing area of focus for Keith. We see this as a tremendous opportunity to add value to our customers and grow profitably in the future. In motive power, our very strong AOE performance was driven by another quarter of favorable price mix on increasing TPPL with charger mix, despite relatively flat sales year over year on lower volumes in EMEA and APAC. In Q4, sales of maintenance-free products were up 16% year over year, representing a record 29% of total motive power revenue, with customer enthusiasm over how our products help them address their labor challenges, as I had mentioned at the beginning of my remarks. Industry estimates for lift trucks indicate calendar year 2025 may be down slightly over prior year, with continued expectations for a better recovery in calendar year 2026.

We are receiving mixed signals on the near-term outlook for motive power. Our April-May order book has been stable to promising, and April ITA truck orders were up over 19% over last year's historical lows. Conversely, we have a lower starting backlog than both a year ago and last quarter, slower book and ship activity in the current quarter, and anticipate disruption will continue to be impacted in the near term, with major ports reporting dramatic fluctuations in container volumes over the past three months as importers drastically adjust shipments week by week in response to ongoing tariff updates. As a reminder, this business is largely correlated with GDP, but also has unique upside opportunities driven by macro trends of electrification and automation, as well as increasing market demand for our higher-performing, higher-value maintenance-free products.

We believe the market pulled in some shipments into our fiscal Q4 in anticipation of announced tariffs, which will reverse out in the first quarter, creating a temporary drag. That said, we also see potential upside opportunities as lithium pricing pressure from Chinese suppliers may drive increased customer interest in TPPL going forward, but it's difficult to predict how and when these market dynamics will play out. In specialty, we delivered significant year-over-year and quarter-over-quarter improvements in both revenue and adjusted operating earnings, driven by solid performance in aerospace and defense, supported by the continuing outperformance of our Bren-Tronics acquisition. Growth in Bren-Tronics was fueled by robust demand for chargers, soldier power, and expeditionary power systems, as well as increased demand from the European defense market. The impressive A&D results were partially offset by slower Class eight truck OEM volume recovery that we had initially anticipated.

Tariff and macro uncertainty have paused the Class 8 truck recovery we were expecting for early fiscal 2026, and we are seeing slower and choppy order rates as major OEMs continue to revise forecasts. A&D markets remain robust and will be strengthened by the macro, although we have seen some near-term delays that we believe to be timing related with personnel reductions in the administration temporarily clogging the flow of orders. With strong momentum in Bren-Tronics and broader A&D, amid opportunities for improvement in transportation when markets come back and our Missouri plant investments come online, our specialty business remains well-positioned for continued growth and profit expansion. Please turn to slide 10. Our recent performance reflects a business not only built for resilience but ready to adapt.

As we transition leadership, we are sharpening our focus, executing with discipline, building operational momentum, and listening closely to customers as their challenges evolve. We've made meaningful strides bringing new technologies to market, introducing cutting-edge products such as software-driven energy management systems, which will help our customers address their energy scarcity challenges that I had mentioned earlier. These advancements equip our customers with adaptable and efficient solutions that evolve alongside their needs. The preview of our Synova Sync Charger and Battery Energy Storage System, or BESS, for warehouse and distribution center customers generated a lot of excitement at recent trade shows. Synova Sync, our new generation battery charger, delivers high efficiency, IoT compatibility for remote monitoring, and over-the-air firmware updates advancing our IoT ecosystem.

While in the development phase, our BESS resonated with our customers looking for a solution to tackle power continuity challenges, costly infrastructure upgrades, long lead times, and limited flexibility, barriers that often slow electrification efforts. Engineered for rapid deployment and semi-portability, customers were enthused by the enhanced flexibility and efficiency of our BESS and what they will offer their operations. Operationally, we're building on progress from fiscal 2025 with a heightened focus on execution. The first new high-speed line in our Missouri Springfield One factory began production this quarter and is performing to expectations, with the second high-speed line on track to become operational in the fall. At the same time, we are actively reshaping our manufacturing footprint. As previously announced, we are closing our flooded lead-acid battery manufacturing facility in Monterrey, Mexico, and transitioning production to our existing plant in Richmond, Kentucky.

This move will enable us to optimize our cost structure as market demand continues to shift to our higher-performing TPPL batteries. The transition will also allow us to maximize near-term IRC 45X tax benefits and aligns with our philosophy of producing in-market. The restructuring is expected to deliver an estimated pre-tax benefit of $19 million annually beginning fiscal year 2027 while ensuring continued product availability and customer support. To further strengthen our focus on high-impact technology execution, as previously announced in March, Mark Mathews, President of our Specialty Global line of business, has been appointed Acting Chief Technology Officer. Mark brings more than three decades of engineering and operational leadership, including deep technical expertise in lithium-ion chemistry. He currently leads our aerospace and defense business, which utilizes multiple distinct lithium chemistries across mission-critical applications.

This experience, combined with his deep relationships across the Department of Defense and Department of Energy, positions him well to guide the next phase of our lithium strategy and align it with national priorities. Mark is actively reviewing our lithium technology roadmap and investment plans to ensure they reflect evolving market demands and long-term supply needs. His dual role ensures commercial alignment with R&D and capacity planning as we position EnerSys for future growth in domestic lithium battery manufacturing. While the funding of the DOE award for our domestic lithium plant remains pending, we are encouraged by recent engagement with the DOE and remain optimistic given the project's alignment with defense readiness, domestic supply assurance, and American manufacturing.

In the meantime, we are taking a disciplined, risk-aware approach, adjusting our plans, maintaining flexibility, and closely managing cost dynamics as we update our financial model for evolving cost and benefit assumptions to ensure our future path delivers an attractive return on investment for our shareholders. We remain well-positioned to move with speed and confidence once greater policy clarity emerges. In closing, I want to express my deep confidence in the strength of our business, the relevance of our solutions, and the dedication of the EnerSys team. We are energized by the critical role we play in supporting the industries that keep data and products across the world moving. I look forward to sharing more about our evolving strategy and growth roadmap during our fiscal Q1 earnings call in August. Now, I'll turn it over to Andy to discuss our financial results and outlook in greater detail. Andy?

Andrea Funk (EVP and CFO)

Thank you, Shawn. Please turn to slide 12. Fourth-quarter net sales of $975 million were up 7% from prior year, the second highest revenue quarter for the company, driven by a 4% increase in organic volume, largely on energy systems, communications, continuing recovery, and strength in data centers, as well as a 1% positive price mix across motive power and energy systems and a 4% positive impact from the Bren-Tronics acquisition, partially offset by a 2% FX headwind. We achieved adjusted gross profit of $304 million, up $49 million year-on-year and up $41 million if you exclude 45X benefits. Q4 2025 adjusted gross margin of 31.2% was up 320 basis points versus prior year, and excluding 45X, adjusted gross margin was up 260 basis points despite the FX headwinds.

Our adjusted operating earnings were $152 million in the quarter, up $43 million versus prior year, with an adjusted operating margin of 15.6%. Excluding 45X benefits, adjusted operating earnings increased $35 million, or 48%, with an adjusted operating margin of 11.1% on 7% revenue growth, driving a 360 basis point margin improvement year-on-year. Adjusted EBITDA was $167 million, an increase of $42 million versus prior year, while adjusted EBITDA margin was 17.1%, up 340 basis points versus prior year. Adjusted EPS for the fourth quarter came in above the high end of our guidance range at $2.97 per share, an increase of 43% over prior year. Excluding 45X, adjusted EPS was a record $1.86 per share, up 66 cents per share versus prior year, demonstrating the strong earnings power of a diversified business and more than 40 cents per share higher than our previous record.

In the fourth quarter of fiscal 2025, our effective tax rate was 15.9% on an as-reported basis and 18.9% on an as-adjusted basis before the benefit of 45X, compared to 20.2% in Q4 of 2024 and 23.3% in the prior quarter. Full-year net sales of $3.6 billion were up 1% year-over-year. We generated adjusted operating profit of $528 million, including $185 million benefit from IRC 45X tax credits. Excluding the 45X benefits, we generated record-adjusted profit of $343 million. Adjusted diluted EPS was $10.15 per share, an increase of 22%, and adjusted diluted EPS before 45X benefits was a record $5.58 per share, an increase of 53 cents from our prior record. Let me now provide some details by segment. Please turn to slide 13.

In the fourth quarter, energy systems revenue increased 8% from prior year to $399 million, primarily driven by increased volumes as well as price mix and partially offset by FX. Revenue was up over $10 million sequentially, the third consecutive increase, as we continue to see steady improvement in these end markets. Adjusted operating earnings of $35 million grew for the fifth consecutive quarter, reflecting higher operating leverage through our optimized cost structure and were $17 million higher than prior year. Adjusted operating margin of 8.7% increased an impressive 400 basis points versus prior year. We exited the quarter with encouraging order trends in this business and expect to deliver year-over-year margin expansion as revenue grows and we continue with our structural improvement efforts.

While we remain fully confident in our ability to proactively mitigate tariff and supply chain disruption when the macro environment stabilizes, we expect to absorb some short-term headwinds from stranded tariffs in the upcoming quarter. As Shawn mentioned, although this segment is our most sensitive to tariff and supply chain volatility, we have enhanced our visibility and responsiveness, allowing us to act with greater speed and precision than in prior cycles. Please turn to slide 14. Motive Power revenue was in line with the prior year at $392 million as FX headwinds and flat volumes were offset by positive price mix. Motive Power again reported robust adjusted operating earnings this quarter, contributing $67 million, up 15% versus prior year on the flat revenue, largely on favorable price mix as well as some lower commodity and manufacturing costs.

Maintenance-free conversion continued its impressive trend at a record 29% of Motive Power revenue in Q4. Adjusted operating margins were 17.1%, up 240 basis points versus the prior year. Since the implementation of tariffs, a leading industry report indicates a significant decline in market sentiment, reflecting a more than 50% drop in confidence for both current and future business as the broader market is digesting this evolving market dynamic. While our products play a critical role in global supply chains, we expect a temporary short-term negative impact on new lift truck orders as companies reassess their investment strategies in response to the evolving trade landscape. We see meaningful upside to this business once conditions settle, supported by long-term tailwinds from electrification and automation, along with growing customer preference for our higher-performing maintenance-free solutions. Please turn to slide 15.

Specialty revenue increased 21% from prior year to $178 million, driven by a 22% positive impact from the Bren-Tronics acquisition and a 1% increase in organic volumes, partially offset by a 2% decrease in price mix. Q4 2025 adjusted operating earnings of $15 million were nearly double prior year, with an adjusted operating margin of 8.5%, up 270 basis points. Specialty's performance reflects focused execution, with A&D and Bren-Tronics driving the current results. With additional leverage expected from our Missouri investments and longer-term transportation improvement, we anticipate further gains ahead. Please turn to slide 16. Positive operating cash flow of $135 million, offset by CapEx of $30 million, resulted in free cash flow of $105 million in the quarter. I would like to note that we have not yet received a $137 million U.S. tax refund, which we had expected in the fourth quarter.

We fully attribute this delay to IRS staffing issues and anticipate receiving the refund with interest any day. We had strong primary operating capital management, ending the year with $932 million on hand, up $79 million versus prior year as we build the business for future growth. As of March 31, 2025, we had $343 million of cash and cash equivalents on hand. Net debt of $781 million represents an increase of approximately $270 million since the end of fiscal 2024, as we made our acquisition of Bren-Tronics, returned $192 million to shareholders through share repurchases and dividends, and continued to invest in our business. Our credit agreement leverage ratio was 1.3 times EBITDA. Our balance sheet remains strong and positions us to invest in growth and navigate the current economic environment.

We anticipate maintaining our net leverage at or below the low end of our 2-3 times target range, providing us with ample dry powder for our capital allocation decisions and to absorb any macroeconomic dynamics that may impact us. Please turn to slide 17. During the fourth quarter, we paid $9.5 million in dividends and repurchased $40 million in shares. We currently have approximately $200 million remaining on our board buyback authorization. We continue to evaluate promising bolt-on acquisition opportunities like Bren-Tronics that align with our discipline, strategic, and financial criteria and are focused on strengthening customer intimacy, expanding share of wallet with our leading positions in exciting end markets, and making progress on our transformation journey. Given the strong cash flow generation of our business, we have the opportunity to be more aggressive in our opportunistic share buyback activity, particularly during these volatile market conditions.

Please turn to slide 18. As Shawn mentioned, we remain very confident in our ability to effectively manage our business in the evolving macro environment and deliver strong earnings performance. We are committed to fully shielding our investors from the ongoing impact of tariffs, although we may have some short-term headwinds when uncertainty creates pockets of volume disruption and stranded costs. Our fiscal first quarter 2026 guidance reflects typical seasonal volume softness in motive power and transportation, exacerbated by these short-term macro dynamics. For the first quarter of fiscal 2026, we expect net sales in the range of $830 million-$870 million, with adjusted diluted EPS of $2.03-$2.13 per share, which includes $35-$40 million of 45X benefits to gross profit.

The largest driver of our anticipated Q1 sequential decline in revenue and EPS can be attributed to motive power volumes, which are expected to be pressured on seasonality and tariff disruptions, with Motive Power Americas Q4 orders down 14% year-on-year, as well as, to a lesser extent, approximately $5 million of stranded tariff costs. Shawn and I are working on scenario plans to effectively respond to any and all outcomes as it relates to further tariff policy dynamics. Given the evolving policy environment and pacing of demand normalization, we are temporarily pausing quantified full-year guidance. That said, we believe Q1 will be the low point of our fiscal year. We anticipate full-year adjusted operating earnings growth, excluding 45X benefits, to outpace revenue growth for the fiscal year.

With improvement in our order book during Q1 year to date, we expect revenue will be bolstered by our customers' enthusiasm for our maintenance-free offerings, robust A&D and data center markets, and ongoing improvements in our communication and transportation businesses, as well as ongoing improvements in our manufacturing costs, disciplined OpEx, and reductions in our capital expenditures year-on-year, all of which will be tempered by macro dynamics. To proactively mitigate these market dynamics, we have implemented direct and indirect cost controls and also are currently reviewing additional reductions in both OpEx and CapEx as part of Shawn's strategic business improvement roadmap. Please turn to slide 19. Before we move to Q&A, with the completion of our fiscal year 2025 results, I would like to provide an update on our progress towards the fiscal year 2027 financial targets we set at Investor Day in June of 2023.

In aggregate, we are on track towards our earnings targets with strong performance on adjusted operating margin, EBITDA, and EPS, and future upside potential from the reinvestment of our excess cash flow. As with any multi-year plan, there are puts and takes. We are very pleased with our maintenance-free conversions, realizing a richer mix of product sales across the business, our TPPL capacity investments, energy systems business optimization actions, the expanded 45X benefits, and the accretive impact of our Bren-Tronics acquisition. On the flip side, our sales CAGRs have been below where we still believe our longer-term potential resides, largely on unforeseen market-wide disruptions. These outcomes have informed Shawn's strategy, which we will be updating you on in August.

As Shawn steps into the CEO role, he is advancing our strategic work aimed at deepening customer intimacy, accelerating our most high-impact new product initiatives that help our customers address their energy and labor challenges, and enhancing our operational efficiencies, execution, and return on invested capital. These efforts, combined with our strong foundation, position us to pursue the growth and margin expansion we know our business is capable of. We look forward to sharing further updates as the fiscal year progresses. In closing, global demand for our energy storage solutions continues to build as our products and services remain essential to the industries that drive the global economy, from resilient grids and communications networks to secure data centers and national security, as well as global material distribution and warehousing.

Coming off of record-shattering Q4, we are confident in the earnings power of our business and are optimistic about our ability to continue to expand margins, grow revenue, and create long-term value for our shareholders. With this, let's open it up for questions. Operator.

Operator (participant)

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. If you have a question or a comment at this time, please press star one one on your telephone. If your question has been answered and you wish to move yourself from the queue, please press star one one again. We'll pause for a moment while we compile our Q&A roster. Our first question comes from Noah Kaye with Oppenheimer. Your line is open.

Noah Kaye (Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst)

Good morning. Thanks for taking the questions. So I guess I just wanted to start first with understanding the one Q guide, the revenue range.

I think you gave some color on where we would see weakness in motive, maybe a little bit of growth in energy systems and specialty. You can talk through that. The EPS guide, about 26 higher year over year on kind of flat revenues at the midpoint. Can you help sort of bridge to that EPS growth with your expectations around operating margins and tax rate?

Shawn O'Connell (President and COO)

Yeah. Good morning, Noah. It's Shawn. Good to hear your voice, and thank you for the question. I'll provide a little color here on what we're seeing for Q1, and then I'll let Andy handle the EPS portion of it. Just to give you a little idea of what went on, in anticipation of Liberation Day, our motive customers just largely took a wait-and-see approach, which had some near-term effect on orders.

We probably saw a little bit of pull-in to get ahead of that. We saw some pickup with improving news from the administration. Overall, as we mentioned in the remarks, year-to-date orders are relatively flat with current order rates, broadly in line with normal cycles, so where we would expect to see in comparison to the last several cycles. While we have this noise, it feels like we are trending back to normal. What we do not know is the effect of reciprocal tariffs. Some of these are still pauses and not settled science, but it feels like a strengthening for us. We anticipate that this blip that we saw was totally tariff shock-related and that the markets are largely getting back to business. As you mentioned, energy systems, we just continue to see activity coming in for network buildout.

The carriers realize they have a deficit when it comes to passing AI traffic through their networks, and they're beginning to get active about solving those technical issues. We feel very good about continued trajectory in ES and a rising comfort level of motive, if you will. We did not see the you did not ask about transportation, but we're kind of following the same trajectory there where we were on pace for a nice recovery. Just like in the forklifts, the transportation customers sort of hit pause to sort through this tariff noise. With that, I'll turn it over to Andy. Yeah.

Andrea Funk (EVP and CFO)

Thanks, Shawn. I think you covered the markets well. Noah, what might help is if we level set to last year. Largely within Q1 2026, it's really going to look a lot like Q1 of 2025.

Revenues in line, if you look at our guide, but we're seeing lower volume, mostly in motive power and some in transportation, as Shawn mentioned, offset by the accretive benefit that we're having from Bren-Tronics and the really strong favorable price mix we've been able to achieve. If I'm looking at EPS, EPS, our guide is up about midpoint, up about $0.10 year-on-year. First, normalize it, so pull out maybe $0.25-$0.30 per share that we should have had of an uplift from Bren-Tronics and the 45X expanded EAM impact. Add back, we probably are seeing about $0.15 per share from pressure from FX, and that gets you to really a flat EPS year-on-year. Why flat? With lower volume, as Shawn mentioned, and that's really related mostly to motive power driving that, and then a little bit of stranded tariff costs.

Those items offset this really robust favorable price mix gain that we've been able to achieve over the course of fiscal year 2025. We are seeing our Q4 orders down on the tariff disruptions, but if you look full year, the orders are pretty much flat year-on-year. We'd expect, without a doubt, that Q1 is going to be the low point, and we should see recovery going on from there absent additional tariff shocks.

Noah Kaye (Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst)

Okay. Thanks, Andy. Yeah. Sorry. I meant to say 10 cents higher year-over-year, but thank you for bridging that. I guess just maybe explain the decision process around kind of pausing guidance because I want to make sure we get that number again because there's a lot of numbers that you guys give out. The one Q to date order book is year-over-year up how much?

Just help us understand why pause full-year guidance if, kind of to your point, we seem to be kind of experiencing some recovery in orders off of the early April uncertainty.

Andrea Funk (EVP and CFO)

Yeah. If we look at our Q4 orders, and I think what we were referring to was within Motive Power Americas, we had that 14% pressure. If you look at orders overall, the energy systems was up year-on-year. Obviously, we are during the recovery. Trans basically flat. A&D is choppy. What we really saw is this big pause and then kind of a resurgence. If we look at full year-to-date within Motive Power calendar year, our calendar year is flat year-on-year.

We saw a big decline during Q4, which we're going to feel the effects of that coming out into Q1, and then a resurgence in Q1 so far of what we're seeing as far as orders go.

David Shaffer (CEO)

Noah, this is Dave. Just for a little bit more clarification, if you look at Motive Power orders calendar year to date, they're very consistent with last year. The normal cycle has been very disrupted, as Shawn said, people took a wait-and-see attitude. The main reason we're just not in a position to provide annual guidance right now is just awaiting the final outcome of the reciprocal tariff negotiations and how that's all going to shake out. That could have both positive and negative impacts for us. We want to make sure we have that clarification and clarity before we go and provide a full annual guidance.

As the situation rests today, it's all very manageable. We just want to make sure that, especially with Shawn coming on board, that we provide the best information we have going forward. That's going to include fully understanding when these holds on the temporary and the reciprocal tariffs kind of wind down. That's what we're waiting to see.

Noah Kaye (Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst)

Thanks, Dave. That's helpful. I need to maybe get some clarification, apologies for not understanding, around what you were actually saying around order recovery in this quarter to date, the current quarter. I thought you gave some color on that and some numbers overall. Can we just have it one more time? What rebound you've seen since April?

Andrea Funk (EVP and CFO)

Again, what we talked about with some, we don't provide necessarily the full order book for Q1. Obviously, it's evolving as we speak right now.

What we were giving you, Noah, was when we talked about the decline in Q4, we saw it bounce back in Q1. So year-to-date, it's flat. I think we gave a couple of stats on what we're seeing throughout the course of the year. What we're looking at is just the bounce back that we're seeing in Q1, if that helps.

Noah Kaye (Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst)

Got it. Okay. Very helpful. Thank you. I'll turn it over.

Operator (participant)

One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from Brian Drab with William Blair. Your line is open.

Andrea Funk (EVP and CFO)

Good morning, Brian.

Brian Drab (Partner and Co-group Head of Industrials)

Good morning. Hey, good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. I'm always hesitant to use people's time to say things like, "Thanks, Dave, for everything." It's been great working with you, and good luck in the next chapter. I'll leave it at that.

I first just wanted to ask Andy, I mean, now you gave out a new number here in the Q&A, the calendar year-to-date orders for motive. Could I ask you if you could give that same year-to-date order growth or decline for energy storage and for specialty, excluding Bren-Tronics for specialty?

Andrea Funk (EVP and CFO)

Yeah. The only thing, Brian, this quarter is unfolding. Obviously, we're halfway through. There's a lot of actions that are going. The main message that we were trying to convey is Q4 orders were pressured, and we saw them rebound in Q1. That's what's driving kind of that pressure that we're seeing in Q1. I think that's similar to the question that Noah was asking. If I look at my Q4 orders in general, though, just so you know, versus prior year, I'm seeing a significant pickup in energy systems.

That's coming off the last year's pressure. Last year was when it started that U-shaped recovery. That recovery is continuing, although we do see some pull-ins from energy systems into Q4. Our Q1 volumes in energy systems might be more or less flat, but additional ongoing opportunity from there. Transportation, year-on-year, the orders have been mostly flat to a little up off of last year. What we had talked about is on the Q3 call, you probably remember, we had seen a 40% increase in sequential transportation orders. As Shawn mentioned, we saw a big decline. The main story we're trying to get here is week by week, it's a little bit all over the place. The market is responding, especially things like Class eight OEM trucks and forklifts. Those are capital purchases. Our products are essential to moving products and information globally.

A lot of this kind of one week it pauses, next week it's up, one week it's not sustainable. Things have to level out. We know that our products provide a critical benefit in the global economy. We're seeing just a lot of volatility as everyone's trying to digest what's happening in the landscape as a result of these tariff calls.

Brian Drab (Partner and Co-group Head of Industrials)

Okay. Thanks. I'll follow up more later on that. Can you talk a little bit more about the Section 45X? I guess specifically, I'm wondering, have you seen anyone else in the industry? Because I know a lot of people are looking for these checks. Have you seen anyone else in the industry get that check cut to them? Are you in an active dialogue with the IRS regarding getting the catch?

Andrea Funk (EVP and CFO)

Yeah, Brian, happy to take that one. Yes.

Other companies or other lead-acid battery companies have received their check. With us being a March 31 year-end, we're at a slight delay. There's been a lot of administrative changes in the IRS, and we have individuals just with our regular ongoing tax filings. We have contacts at the IRS who have said, "There's no holdup in particular on your refund. We're just short-staffed." We've received no indication from both political connections we have as well as from agents at the IRS themselves that there is anything other than just staffing delays. We expect them in any day. I thought maybe we'd even get it yesterday and have an update to this Q&A. We expect to get it any day, and interest accrues as well. We'll get an additional benefit from them also.

Shawn O'Connell (President and COO)

Yeah. Brian, it's Shawn.

I do not know if you are watching the up-to-date news on all the happenings on the Hill. As we have been socializing, there is just broad bipartisan support of 45X and the package that was passed. It has to go to the Senate, and it is still open to final tweaks. The package that was passed was largely in line with what we thought it would be. Nearly all of the tenets of 45X that were important to us are intact, if not all. There is a little bit of an increased sunset past 2031, and they removed some wind stuff that did not apply to us anyway. Broadly, 45X appears to be moving in the direction we thought it would be and will continue.

Brian Drab (Partner and Co-group Head of Industrials)

Yeah. I think everyone that is following EnerSys is following that closely. Yeah, thanks for that update.

I guess the last thing, if I could sneak in one more, is just sorry if I missed this, but are you making any comments today regarding your latest thinking on the lithium plant?

Shawn O'Connell (President and COO)

Sure. I'll take that one, Brian. We continue to have direct conversations with the administration. We haven't seen in our talks with the DOE any wavering at all of their support of the lithium plant. To remind you, the impetus for the funding was rooted in largely our defense programs. Just for a bit of color, there are over 40 programs today for the Department of Defense that are sourced in Asia, and many of them from China for our national defense. They are trying to consolidate those programs and bring them back home. The support has been very strong.

We have Mark Mathews, who we mentioned on the call, who's been involved in the program since day one, who maintains these direct relationships. We have Mark going through and just making sure that along with our finance team, we keep our model updated. We make sure we understand all of the changing cost inputs, if any. Now with the 45X news, we'll add that into our thinking. I will tell you also that we have never slowed down our cell development program so that while we've been waiting to see what's happening with funding, we've been working with our development partner to advance our A samples and be ready to go when we get the right news. At this time, we feel very positive about that. As we update the model and what that looks like, we'll keep you updated. Okay.

Brian Drab (Partner and Co-group Head of Industrials)

Perfect. Thanks very much.

Andrea Funk (EVP and CFO)

Thank you, Brian.

Operator (participant)

One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from Greg Lewis with BTIG. Your line is open.

Greg Lewis (Managing Director)

Yeah. Thank you. And good morning, everybody. Thanks for taking my questions. Dave, I know I thanked you last quarter, but thanks again for all the help over the last few years. Good luck. Andy and Shawn, I guess this question is for you guys as we think about going forward, probably a couple of questions inside this question. As we look at the leverage target, you alluded to the tax refund you're going to get. That pushes it down even lower. Clearly, we're in a good position to kind of, you mentioned the buyback or organic growth. As we look around the landscape over the next few quarters, how are you thinking about the potential for inorganic growth?

Just as a point of clarification, in the prepared comments where we talked about sequential or your EPS growth, just to clarify, there's no expectation of bolt-ons in that number, correct?

Andrea Funk (EVP and CFO)

No. No bolt-ons at all in our number at all.

Greg Lewis (Managing Director)

Okay. To my

Andrea Funk (EVP and CFO)

—I tell you, I know it sounds like you have a bunch of other questions in there, Greg. Just want to make sure that we can be succinct in getting to those.

Greg Lewis (Managing Director)

Great. As we look at today, what is the opportunities on the M&A front? Just given your balance sheet, as we look at previous cycles, is uncertainty that we're in right now, is that kind of going to keep people on the sidelines in terms of your ability to acquire additional companies? Or is it kind of from your side, is it still business as usual?

Shawn O'Connell (President and COO)

Yeah, Greg.

Let me take that, Andy. Greg, this is Shawn. Thank you for your question. Let me just say, we have a fantastic business. All of our macros are good. You have this whole situation happening in the world, particularly in the U.S., where the grid margin, that is the gap between the grid capacity and the load growth, is shrinking everywhere. Our customers are really looking for us to step in and help them manage that. As you mentioned, we have this fantastic balance sheet with a lot of dry powder. I think the inverse is true. We're not going to wait on the sidelines. I think probably some of this uncertainty will pressure some of the smaller players and probably actually increase our ability to go out and find good targets.

With that said, we still see a very long runway in A&D and along with a lot of synergies with our domestic lithium manufacturing. You saw the lift we're getting from Bren-Tronics. They're not the only target for us. We're going to be very opportunistic with that dry powder and stay acquisitive. As long as those targets fit our ROIC model, we're really going to be putting a lot of rigor around what that should look like for our shareholders.

Andrea Funk (EVP and CFO)

Yeah. If I can add a little bit more to that, Greg, early in Q4, we're wrapping up our budget, and this is before a lot of these tariff disruptions occurred. We had double-digit revenue growth built into our budget, low double-digit revenue growth, no acquisitions-based business. We just had an outstanding Q4. That was not an anomaly.

That outstanding Q4 was even with comms and trans being slow, the opportunity for those to improve from there. That's the base that we're building the strategy off of, and the business will improve from there. We've got growth verticals that Shawn's looking at, efficiencies and execution. And all of that is before looking at any mergers and acquisitions. Although with our deep rich balance sheet that we have, we have the ability to move fast, and we look at that on an ongoing basis. We do think Q1 is going to be the low point with our results trending back to this record Q4 and upside from there, as we had done in our original budget before all of these tariff issues started to arise. Albeit, it's going to be tempered by the macro. So are we going to get back there this year?

We could get back there earlier in this year. Or is it going to be later? It's going to depend. Are the tariffs going to get negotiated and tax rate cuts hold? Will tariffs be expanded? Will there be another liberation day kind of shock? That's all. What we don't want to do is make promises for things that we don't have full visibility of and are able to commit to fully. Our Q1 order book is improving. We mentioned that motive power was pressured in Q4, but year-on-year, it's flat. As Shawn mentioned, we expect revenue lift from our maintenance-free offerings, A&D and data center robustness, ongoing comms and trans recovery. And we know the strength of our balance sheet offers optionality for us to proactively mitigate whatever comes at us. We know we're all over and ahead of tariffs. We can talk about that later.

We've got a great playbook. We're committed to fully offsetting the impacts. We've got a proven and effective refined playbook. We know our products serve a critical role in these global markets. The real question is volatility. In a three-month span, our stock lost and regained $900 million in the marketplace. The truth is, nothing really changed. Our business potential is still there. Wherever tariff ends up, we got it. Whatever happens to the macro, we've got a playbook. It's just the timing that we're struggling with.

Greg Lewis (Managing Director)

Okay. You mentioned motive and the order intake.

I guess, and I think it might have been Dave that mentioned depending on how the realizing, "Hey, it's a House bill that needs to get through the Senate, and there's a lot of work that needs to be done around that to change really anything." There was a comment from somebody about it potentially being good. Is that related to all competition for TPPL from other, whether it's battery electric or hydrogen? If you could talk a little bit more about why changes to the IRA could be good. Does that also have, is that going to be an impact from tariffs as well, just given where some of your competition and motive is sourced? Is that kind of a fair way to think about it?

David Shaffer (CEO)

I can start, Greg, and then Shawn can add a little color.

The comments I made were about the fundamentals of the business, and the orders are very stable. In terms of the IRA, in terms of changing the competitive landscape, that's not really on the radar screen as much as it's the tariff issues and how that's going to shake out, depending on what the plant of origin is for various competitors and us. That's really kind of what we're waiting to see is how all the tariffs land to see what that does to the competitive landscape. In terms of 45X or any, that's really, if that's what you heard from my comments, that wasn't meant to have any impact on that. Again, just to reiterate, I know there's some hesitancy for us to give out order data because we don't normally do that.

The orders in Q1 year to date have been on very solid footing across all businesses. The order softness was in Q4, as Andy said. If you look at it over a longer time period, things have normalized. All indications from our order book are business as usual, pending what we see with these reciprocal tariffs. Shawn, you want to add any color to that?

Shawn O'Connell (President and COO)

Yeah, I do. I think the other part of your question, Greg, was how we see the market and are there opportunities. Certainly, if you heard in the prepared remarks, we're now at 29% maintenance-free and motive power. There is just so much meat on that bone to continue that conversion.

If we talk about that energy scarcity and then the other side of that coin, or energy security, the other side of that coin is labor scarcity. Our customers, not only do they not want to spend the money on the labor element to manage these systems, they can't get the people. The people that they do get, they want to dedicate towards revenue-facing opportunities in the warehouse or revenue-facing activities. That maintenance-free conversion is going to continue. I'll tell you, we don't publish our quote rates, but our quote rates are far above that 29%. We know that that's resonating with customers. At the same time, we're being added into more and more of the large OEM and customer programs. We continue to see ourselves with share pickup opportunities.

The one thing that may be influenced by tariff activity relative to your question about competitive positioning, should tariffs continue to remain high for Asia-based lithium or incoming lithium cells, TPPL gets you most of the way of lithium without some of the downside risks and safety considerations. We could actually see an uptick in our TPPL offering should that tariff environment stay robust on lithium. To your point, the macros that are giving us lift and allowing us on flat volumes to have the revenue and margin conversion that we've enjoyed, we fully expect to continue. To Dave's point, we just need the market to settle down a bit on this tariff activity, which we believe we're beginning to see.

Andrea Funk (EVP and CFO)

I'll add one other item, Greg, just to make sure there's no confusion there.

As Shawn mentioned, and I think this is important to keep in mind, we do not allocate 45X into our LOBs at all. So no impact on pricing. The only thing that we do, which has always been part of our strategy, is to produce in region, so increase our domestic capacity. Our margins in motive power, 17.1% in the quarter, up 240 basis points. I mean, just a phenomenal quarter for motive power. Going forward, other than this tariff disruption that we saw in our Q4 books, it's going to play out in Q1. The higher conversion to maintenance-free, Shawn mentioned, managing OpEx tightly. The NPIs that he's looking at, we're talking about the motive power BESS, helping our customers manage their energy. There's a lot of enthusiasm on that. We should be launching that at the end of this year.

We also announced the closure of our Monterrey plant, transitioning production to Richmond. That also aligns with this strategy, gives us maintenance as maintenance-free adoption grows, right-sizes our footprint. We estimate that'll save about $19 million a year, beginning in fiscal year 2027. While we know, and we're as unhappy with the pressure that we're seeing temporarily in Q1, as I'm sure all of you are, I'm not worried about motive power at all going forward.

Greg Lewis (Managing Director)

Thank you very much.

Operator (participant)

One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from Chip Moore with ROTH Capital Partners. Your line is open.

Andrea Funk (EVP and CFO)

Good morning, Chip.

Chip Moore (Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst)

Hey, good morning. Thanks for taking the question. Hey, I wanted to maybe dive deeper on energy systems, I guess, any more color on sort of the green shoots you're seeing on potential network expansion, and particularly anything around sort of this last-mile communications.

I think OpenAI is now talking about mobile hardware, these types of things. Are you seeing some of those discussions underway?

Shawn O'Connell (President and COO)

Yeah. Hi, Chip. Good morning. It's Shawn. Thank you for your question. Listen, I think what we're really seeing is we saw that pause just as I was coming into the energy systems business a little over a year and a half ago. We saw that pause happening. Coming out of that, there was a couple of issues that occurred. One, these things, these pauses are always, particularly in these systems that we support, they always just create technical debt. It's one of those things that the operators can put off, but they can't forestall forever.

You're seeing part of the recovery is just solving for the technical debt issues that they created and keeping the network back up and running and handling the break fix and that part of it. The second part of it we're seeing directly from users relates to what we're talking about, energy scarcity, but then also what I mentioned about processing AI-centered traffic. A lot of the investment we're seeing, early investment, as you might imagine, are in upgrading macro sites. They're also upgrading. Years ago, central offices were being decommissioned or even sold off because the landlines were being decommissioned. Now, operators are seeing that brick and mortar as small AI data centers, if you will. You note the Verizon and Frontier, I would call it remarriage. We're seeing some of those upgrades.

It isn't yet, and I just want to stress, it's not one of the, we're not getting the lift of one of the G buildouts of years past. To your point, in green shoots, we are starting to see the backbone enhanced and some of that investment going in.

Chip Moore (Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst)

Thanks. That's helpful. Maybe on sort of that more near-term break fix in that segment, it just helps us think about inventory dynamics and service utilization and some of those things.

Shawn O'Connell (President and COO)

Yeah. I think most of the inventory pain we saw with inventory oversupply, we've largely moved through that. We're seeing a lot of new equipment orders. You bring up the service utilization piece. We always see equipment orders precede an uptick in service. It's intuitive, right

Because materials being provisioned as site acquisitions are being done and site permitting, and then the service tends to follow. I would tell you that our product performance has been robust over the past couple of quarters, and service is gradually catching up to it. We expect more upside in services as that materializes.

Chip Moore (Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst)

Appreciate it. Maybe if I could sneak one last one in, maybe on the outlook, any thoughts to what might give you comfort to resume full year guidance at some point? Would that be sort of working through some of these temporary headwinds and see what happens on reciprocal tariffs? Just how are you thinking about that? Thanks.

Andrea Funk (EVP and CFO)

Yeah. I'll take that, Chip. Thanks for the question. We absolutely are committed to resuming full year guidance as soon as there's a little more clarity in what's happening with the overall landscape.

A lot of news even happening today, as you know. Hopefully, we'll be able to resume guidance next quarter. It is going to depend on what happens in the macro. I think we're just committed to making sure that what we give in our guide, we've got visibility into.

Chip Moore (Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst)

Thank you. Appreciate it.

Operator (participant)

I'm not showing any further questions at this time. I'd like to turn the call back over to Dave for any closing remarks.

David Shaffer (CEO)

Thank you, Kevin. In closing, I want to again express my deep appreciation to our investors for their continued confidence in EnerSys. It's been a privilege to help guide this company through its transformation into a global leader in energy solutions. With a strong team in place and clear momentum heading into fiscal year 2026, I'm excited to see what EnerSys will accomplish next under Shawn's leadership. Thank you all.

Operator (participant)

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. That concludes today's presentation. You may now disconnect and have a wonderful day.