Advanced Drainage Systems - Earnings Call - Q1 2026

Executive Summary

• Q1 FY2026 delivered resilient profitability despite tepid demand: net sales $829.9M (+1.8% y/y), Adjusted EBITDA $278.2M (+1.0% y/y), Adjusted EBITDA margin 33.5%.
• Versus S&P Global consensus, the company posted beats on revenue ($829.9M vs $796.3M*), Primary EPS ($1.95 vs $1.76*), and EBITDA ($264.0M vs $253.2M*), aided by favorable price/cost and mix; Adjusted EBITDA was $278.2M.
• Guidance maintained for FY2026 net sales ($2.825B–$2.975B) and Adjusted EBITDA ($850M–$910M); capex outlook reduced to $200M–$225M (from ~$275M in May), and quarterly dividend raised to $0.18 (+13% y/y).
• Management emphasized higher-margin mix (Infiltrator + Allied) and execution on price, logistics, and operations; weather delays and elevated rates were headwinds, with demand described as “flattish and tepid”.

What Went Well and What Went Wrong

What Went Well

• Mix shift and execution: Infiltrator sales +21.1% y/y to $178.4M (Orenco acquisition; organic +0.7%); Allied Products & Other +1.9% y/y; Adjusted EBITDA margin 33.5% despite market softness.
• Price/cost favorable and stable pricing: Management cited stable sequential pricing and favorable material costs; logistics and transportation offset fixed cost absorption.
• Cash generation and balance sheet: Free cash flow $222.4M (vs $125.7M y/y), net debt fell to $792.0M, liquidity $1,228.1M including $638.3M cash.

Management quotes:

• “We generated strong results… delivering a resilient 33.5% adjusted EBITDA margin despite a challenging market environment.”
• “Price cost was favorable… Manufacturing costs were unfavorable… offset a portion… with favorable transportation costs.”
• “We ended the quarter with less than one turn of net leverage and over $1,200,000,000 in available liquidity.”

What Went Wrong

• Demand softness and weather: Wet weather in May/June delayed installations; demand “flattish and tepid”; international sales -16.0% y/y.
• SG&A up on acquisitions and investment: SG&A rose 10.5% y/y to $104.0M (12.5% of sales) primarily due to Orenco; gross profit -0.6% y/y on unfavorable fixed cost absorption/mix.
• Pipe category decline: Domestic pipe sales -2.5% y/y to $415.5M; infrastructure segment variability on tough comps (airports).

Transcript

Speaker 3

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Today's presentation will start in two minutes. Thank you for your patience. You will be placed back on music hold until the call begins.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Advanced Drainage Systems first quarter of fiscal year 2026 results conference call. My name is Tamika, and I am your operator for today's call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question during that time, press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If your question has been answered and you would like to remove yourself from the queue, press star one. I would now like to turn the presentation over to your host for today's call, Mr. Mike Higgins, Vice President of Corporate Strategy and Investor Relations. Sir, you may begin.

Speaker 0

Good morning, everyone. With me today, I have Scott Barbour, our President and CEO, and Scott Cottrill, our CFO. I would also like to remind you that we will discuss forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially from those forward-looking statements because of various factors, including those discussed in our press release and the risk factors identified in our Form 10-K filed with the SEC. While we may update forward-looking statements in the future, we disclaim any obligation to do so. You should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, all of which speak only as of today. Lastly, the press release we issued earlier this morning is posted on the Investor Relations section of our website. A copy of the release has also been included in an AK submitted to the SEC. We will make a replay of this conference call available via webcast on the company website.

With all that said, I now will turn the call over to Scott Barbour.

Speaker 1

Thank you, Mike, and good morning, everyone. Thank you all for joining us on today's call. We generated strong results in the first quarter, delivering a resilient 33.5% adjusted EBITDA margin despite a challenging market environment. The ADS and Infiltrator teams executed well and remained focused on driving profitable growth and operational excellence by executing our market share model, introducing new products, pursuing acquisitions, and investing capital for long-term growth. Revenue increased 2% overall, primarily driven by the Aramco acquisition. Organic sales were down slightly, though our core non-residential and residential end markets were resilient in the quarter. Importantly, allied products and Infiltrator, which are two of our higher margin categories, increased revenue in the quarter. We continue to build on the strong foundation of the ADS story.

We operate in highly attractive water segments supported by secular tailwinds from changing climate patterns, as well as the increasing awareness of the societal value of proper stormwater and onsite wastewater management, ultimately driving long-term demand for the company's products. ADS is the only company with solutions that extend throughout the entire stormwater system on a national scale. Through our best-in-class portfolio of water management products, we deliver solutions that are safer, faster to install, and lower costs through savings on labor and equipment. To meet the needs of our customers and communities, we continue to bring innovative solutions to the market that expand and evolve our product offering. In June, ADS launched the Arcadia Hydrodynamic Separator, a high-performance water quality separator product designed to remove suspended solids. With industry-leading performance, this product addresses the need to protect water resources from pollution.

This product comes on the heels of the new stormwater treatment solution, the EcoStream Biofiltration product, launched in the latter half of fiscal 2025. Both of these water quality products are designed to remove pollutants such as nitrogen, phosphorus, sediments, metals, and hydrocarbons in different applications. Water quality remains a key growth area for ADS, and this category has grown at high-teens CAGR over the last three years as regulations requiring stormwater treatment continue to evolve. Our new engineering and technology center, equipped with a 90,000-gallon closed-loop hydraulics lab, allowed us to test and commercialize these products more quickly than was previously possible. For context, that is the amount of water used by the average U.S. household over the course of two and a half years. This lab has the capacity to move water at 2,300 gallons per minute.

Compare that to the water pressure in your average kitchen sink of two to three gallons per minute, and it will give you an idea of the capability of our new engineering and technology center. Additionally, demand in the advanced treatment market is also a key focus area, and we are pleased with Aramco's strong start to the year with growth in commercial applications as well as controls. Aramco's performance was a significant contributor to driving Infiltrator Water Technologies' 21% growth this quarter, complemented by double-digit organic growth in onsite wastewater tanks, where conversion to plastic remains highly relevant. Domestic allied product sales increased 1%, driven by demand in the multifamily residential market, where we experienced double-digit growth of key products like retention detention chambers, water quality products, and our stormwater capture structures. More broadly, residential market demand was highly variable depending on geography and application.

While multifamily construction improved, single-family housing continues to be impacted by the interest rate environment and affordability constraints. From a geographic lens, we saw better land development activity in the West and Northeast, but the DIY channel we service through big-box retailers was challenged. Infiltrator core products, both leach field chambers and septic tanks, significantly outperformed the market. We will continue to drive growth through product introductions and material conversion opportunities, while also building on the relationships with the large national and regional home builders to drive above-market growth in residential construction. In the non-residential market, growth was driven by acquisitions and strong execution from our sales team, particularly in commercial construction activity in the Midwest, Atlantic Coast, South, and Southeastern United States.

We continue to see good activity in data centers and large projects and believe that underlying demand in key geographies was impacted by heavy rainfall and high temperatures, particularly in May and June. With respect to infrastructure, despite revenue being down this quarter compared to the prior year, it was actually the third highest revenue quarter in the company's history. As a reminder, this segment is more concentrated in geographies where we have stronger approvals and often large projects like airports can make quarterly performance uneven. That said, over the long term, the demand drivers remain strong. Over 50% of the IIJA's highway and street funds will be spent over the next five years, so we continue to feel good about the overall direction of the infrastructure market. Moving to profitability, this quarter's 33.5% adjusted EBITDA margin is among the highest in the company's history despite a challenging demand environment.

Excluding Aramco, the consolidated margin would have been 34.1%. Importantly, overall pricing remains stable sequentially as expected. Price-cost was favorable in the quarter, benefiting from favorable material costs as well as product mix. Manufacturing costs were unfavorable as expected due to the fixed cost absorption on inventory produced over the winter months. We were able to offset a portion of that with favorable transportation costs driven by the better performance of new assets and implementation of new programs. Also of note, we recently began to wind down operations at a distribution yard and a small pipe manufacturing operation. With the capacity investments in the region and acquisition of River Valley Pipe, we were able to eliminate some inefficient production while also improving our customer service and delivery.

Over the last year, we have taken fixed costs out of the ADS network by closing two pipe production operations, a recycling facility, and three distribution yards without compromising any customer service. We can do this because of the investments we have made in new lines, rebuilds, and the planning programs implemented over the last several years. To illustrate this point, on average, ADS production per line increased by over 20% compared to pre-COVID levels, and the strategic capital invested over the last several years has allowed us to remove inefficient equipment from the network. I'm very proud of the team for the performance delivered in a challenging quarter. Their disciplined execution and commitment to continuous improvement resulted in our safest quarter ever, achieving a record low total recordable incident rate below 1.5 compared to an industry average of 3.2.

These achievements reflect our ongoing focus on operational excellence and safety, which are foundational elements of our sustainable growth strategy. When you stack up our strengths, the scale, the product portfolio, our go-to-market strategy, and the ability to invest in both our businesses, our people, and industry growth, you can see Advanced Drainage Systems as a powerful value proposition. In summary, we continue to execute effectively in a challenging environment, preserving strong margin and enhancing our mix towards more profitable products and geographies. Our self-help operational initiatives are now bearing fruit. We've increased the capacity of the existing production lines and added new ones in strategic areas to meet customer demand. We've also upgraded the service and delivery experience for our customers, leveraging new digital tools across our platform. While we navigate the near-term environment, we do so with an eye towards the future.

We remain firmly committed to our long-term vision and will continue investing in the capabilities that will position us for future success. Overall, that long-term outlook for our business remains strong, supported by compelling secular tailwinds driving demand for water management solutions across the U.S. Now I'll turn the call over to Scott Cottrill.

Speaker 0

Thanks, Scott. On slide five, we present our first quarter fiscal 2026 financial performance. Revenue increased 2% to $830 million despite challenging end market demand. Importantly, we believe our results outpaced our end markets overall, demonstrating the resilience of the ADS business model. As Scott noted, from a profitability perspective, we are very pleased with the 33.5% adjusted EBITDA margin in the first quarter. A couple of things I feel are worth reiterating. First, pricing remains stable sequentially as we had indicated and expected. Second, price-cost was favorable year over year. From a manufacturing perspective, while we did experience unfavorable fixed cost absorption during the quarter, we were able to partially offset such with favorable transportation as well as favorable variable manufacturing cost performance.

Regarding SG&A costs, the year-over-year increase was primarily driven by the acquisition of Aramco, as well as continued investments in areas that drive long-term shareholder value, such as resources and talent at our world-class engineering and technology center. We have worked to offset these increases by containing costs in travel, marketing, and other discretionary expenses. Again, despite choppy end market demand, it is important to highlight the company's performance and the resulting 33.5% EBITDA margin, one of the highest margins in the company's history despite end market weakness, demonstrated the continued resilience of the ADS business model. On slide six, we present our free cash flow for the quarter. We generated $222 million of free cash flow year to date compared to $126 million in the prior year, primarily driven by better working capital performance.

Of note, we expect the OBBBA to result in an incremental $30 to $40 million of free cash flow this fiscal year. Thoughtful capital allocation continues to be a key focus for the management team and our board, given the strong cash generation of this business. We spent $53 million on capital expenditures in the first quarter, and we now expect to spend approximately $200 million to $225 million for the full year, focusing on innovation and product development at the new world-class engineering and technology center, as well as increasing our recycling capacity in the Southeast, continued investment in customer service, productivity, and automation, as well as executing on growth in key geographies. We ended the quarter with less than one turn of net leverage and over $1.2 billion in available liquidity, including $638 million of cash on hand.

This level of financial strength gives us exceptional flexibility to invest with conviction and respond quickly to strategic opportunities as they arise. Our capital allocation priorities remain focused on value creation levers such as capital expenditures, innovation, and acquisitions. Moving on to slide seven, while pleased with our performance in Q1, given the continued uncertain demand environment, our guidance ranges remain unchanged. We remain focused on executing our long-term strategic plans to drive consistent long-term growth, margin expansion, and free cash flow generation. With that, I will open the call for questions. Operator, please open the line.

Speaker 3

As a reminder, to ask a question, press star one on your telephone keypad. If your question has been answered and you would like to remove yourself from the queue, press star one. Your first question is from the line of Bryan Francis Blair with Oppenheimer.

Thank you. Good morning, guys.

Speaker 2

Morning.

Very solid start to the year. To level set on Q1 performance, can you estimate the impact of weather in terms of project delays and remind us of the easy comp dynamics from Q1 2025? In the end, I'm just trying to get to the net impact of Q1 2026 deferrals versus prior year project timing.

Oh, okay. Morning, Brian. Scott B. You know, the unpacking how things are moving because of weather. I mean, that's kind of how I interpret your question. I do think that, you know, early in the first quarter, you know, April, May, some things were moving around by weeks, delayed two, three, four, five weeks. Stuff certainly moved around between the fourth quarter of last year and this quarter. Some stuff moved into this quarter. I'm not sure that it was, you know, hugely detrimental to us because it's just there's a delay. This stuff kind of comes back. If I recall correctly, last year there was probably some stuff pulled into the quarter.

Yeah. Brian, I would say last year, it was probably $15 to $20 million when you look at the kind of favorable impact that happened in Q4 that was stolen from Q1. That would kind of be there. I would agree with Scott. Things kind of moved around in the quarter, but.

Kind of evened out. That's it.

Kind of evened out, right? As we get through July and August, you know, we think it's kind of a normal run rate, assuming no other significant weather events that delay things.

What I'm trying to really always suss out of these situations is, you know, demand overall is just kind of tepid. It's very regional, and as weather moves them back and forth a little bit, we've got to be careful not to get too excited when stuff kind of moves around by a couple of weeks or from one month to the next. Our overall view of the demand is it's rather flattish and tepid. When we can grow in residential and non-residential, these very core markets across both the Infiltrator and the Advanced Drainage Systems platform, we feel like we're doing pretty good and more than holding serve in our key markets and geographies.

Absolutely. That seems to be the case. I appreciate the color there. Price-cost always, you know, team's focus and trying to positive a little earlier than anticipated. I guess given, you know, price stability, continued sequential stability, you know, anticipated mix, current visibility on input costs, what does your team expect for Q2 price-cost? Is there any shift to the, you know, neutral full-year impact that you've baked into that?

Let's start with the last part of that first. Price-costs for the year are still expected to be flat, and then again, a little bit favorable versus our expectation in the first quarter as you indicated. Remember last year, we didn't have the pricing impact until our fiscal second quarter. A little bit of pricing that we had to deal with on a year-over-year basis in that first quarter, but we lapped in the second quarter. That will be something as you look at that progression from Q1 to Q2 and then through the remainder of the year. Sequentially, pricing has remained relatively flat like we've been talking about. That's very good.

Speaker 3

Your next question is from the line of Matthew Adrien Bouley with Barclays.

Good morning, everyone. Thank you for taking the questions. I wanted to start on CapEx. I think the guide was reduced from $275 million to that $200 to $225 million. I just wanted to check on if anything's changed around the capital projects you're planning to invest in this year, if this is just timing, or if we should kind of read any implications to share repurchase or potentially a little bit more dry powder for M&A. Thank you.

Speaker 2

Yeah, hey, Matt. Scott here. It's just timing. Some of the larger projects we had are just moving to the right a little bit. It doesn't impact our ability to meet our anticipated demand. Scott hit on the efficiencies and productivity, and some of the other things that we've done strategically to meet the demand in certain regions. It's just all timing.

Okay. Got it. Thanks, Scott. Secondly, on Infiltrator, you know, that organic growth of nearly 1%, obviously, the residential end market is fairly choppy here in terms of starts. I think I heard you mention that you saw double-digit organic growth in onsite septic wastewater solutions. I guess I was wondering if you could expand on that a little bit and how that plays into your outlook. You know, could we expect to see that onsite septic wastewater solutions side of it perhaps offsetting this residential backdrop here? Thank you.

is Scott Barbour, and Craig Taylor is here with us today too from Infiltrator Water Technologies. It's tanks. It's tanks that continue to gain share and grow through new distribution points, new models that we introduced over the last 18 months, pooled and introduced over the last 18 months. In the core and leach field, I think that we are in the right spot where the types of plate homes or geographies that use our products have onsite septic wastewater solutions. It kind of has a higher mix towards that versus municipal there. We continue to do really great work there in new products, running our programs in through the distribution, and again, just executing well in Winchester, Kentucky, their very nice facility.

Speaker 3

Your next question is from the line of John Lovallo with EBS.

Morning, guys. Thanks for taking my questions as well. I wanted to ask about, you know, last quarter, you talked about the first quarter perhaps being the softest margin given, you know, pricing dynamics and also, you know, the worst fixed cost absorption. Curious if that still stands. I mean, it doesn't seem like the outlook would imply that. Is there any change in the cadence of how you're looking at the margins through the year?

Speaker 2

John, this is Scott Barbour. Scott Cottrill wants to talk. I can tell also. We worked our tail off to try to offset what we saw as really poor absorption through the winter months flushing out in our first fiscal quarter. We worked very hard in other areas that were period costs, particularly in transportation and logistics, to make that a better story than we anticipated. Does it inform the rest of the year? We're not changing our guide. It's just the first quarter. We're honestly more worried about demand than we are our ability to perform on cost or resin and stuff like that. That's why we're cautious. I use this word tepid around demand, and we just don't want to get ahead of ourselves there. That's how we're thinking about it. Scott, you want to add anything to that?

No, you nailed it. Perfect.

Okay. That makes a lot of sense. It looks like you guys didn't buy back any stock in the quarter. I mean, how should we sort of think about repos going forward? You guys have plenty of cash. You lowered through CapEx. How are you thinking about repos as we move forward?

Speaker 0

Yeah, it's something we're looking at, John. We continue to look at it. It's just something we measure based on our capital needs right now and what we're investing in there. As you heard me say, some of those projects are moving out to the right a little bit. We've got a little bit of availability, a little bit more cash. The OBBBA bill is going to give us a little bit more cash flow than what we had thought as well coming into this year, from the bonus depreciation and the R&D piece of that. Again, a little bit more cash to deploy than what we thought. I would look to us looking at data here in the next couple of quarters.

As we look at that based on our working capital needs, our capital expenditures, our innovation, and other investments that we're making, it becomes a key part of that disciplined and balanced capital allocation approach that we want to use. Right now, we're comfortable where we are, but that doesn't mean that in the next couple of quarters, we take what I'll put air quotes around excess cash, and put that to work. That's how I would talk to it.

Speaker 2

Makes sense. Thank you.

Speaker 3

Your next question is from Ryan Michael Connors with Stephens.

Hey, good morning, everyone. This is Ethan on for Trey. Thanks for taking the question. I wanted to hone in on Allied and Infiltrator and those two segments seeing stronger growth versus pipe and how you guys are seeing a nice mixed benefit there. Any sense on how you guys are expecting that sort of relative performance to trend for the year, maybe any margin mixed benefits versus what had been baked into guidance? I think I also heard that there were some geographic mixed benefits as well. Any more color on that would be great. Thanks so much.

Speaker 2

Good question. We will continue to really drive the outlet, work on programs to get higher attach rates of pipe and allied products. What I mean by that is we are working a lot of programs to sell the full package and to increase our penetration of the allied products at a greater rate than we increase our penetration of plastic pipe. That goes on in every geography. Some are ahead of others, and those geographies that are a little behind in that, we're doing some new things to try to stimulate that. Infiltrator, you know, it's new products. It's the tanks. We continue to invest heavily in that business from a capital and resource perspective and acquisition perspective to drive that at higher growth rates. It's part of our algorithm to drive allied and Infiltrator at higher growth rates than the basic pipe business.

That said, I think it's kind of built into our guidance, those relative growth rates. When we can execute on that, sometimes we get a little bump. I think we probably got some right now. The other thing I would add to that is the really nice program that the Infiltrator team is working on with the Aramco acquisition. That mixes them down a bit. They kind of take that personally, so they're working some really good programs. The Aramco team is doing a good job executing those programs, as a matter of fact. That's another big work item for us as a company, to continue to improve the profitability of that acquisition. Those are kind of our major levers. I think we built it into our guide mostly, but to the extent we can exceed our expectations around growth, that would help the gross margin mix of the company.

Got it. That's very helpful. I appreciate the color there. Quickly shifting to the cost of the price-cost equation, you know, materials seem to be a bit of a good guy there. Any color that you can give on what's driving the outperformance there? Any more color on that would be helpful. Thank you.

Speaker 0

Anytime you talk about price-cost, starting with the price side, obviously, we've got a little bit of that headwind we talked about for the pricing that started coming off a little bit in the second quarter of last year, continuing as we move. You obviously got some mix that goes into there that makes it on that side a little bit better than what we had thought. On the resin side of the house, we have really good visibility of that. We know what's on the balance sheet. We know what's going to release over the next couple of months through cost of sales and in our gross margins. Again, not a lot of surprise there. To your point, a nice tailwind.

Speaker 2

It's execution. It's good price-cost management through both pipe, allied products, and Infiltrator.

Yeah.

Speaker 3

Your next question is from the line of Garik Simha Shmois with Loop Capital.

Thanks. I can wrap some of the quarter. I wanted to ask just first on the, if there's cost absorption that you had previously called out and saw in the first quarter. Just wanted to be clear that that's fully behind you and there's no lingering impact as you move into Q2.

Speaker 2

Yeah, nothing worth highlighting there. We got most of that behind us, like we talked about.

Okay, I just wanted to follow up, just in light of the type of backdrop that you're seeing on the demand side. I think I can predict the answer to this question, but are you seeing any change in the competitive landscape? I know you're getting a ton of questions with respect to new capacity that's come on in certain regions over the last several quarters. Any thoughts on the competitive backdrop, given the demand, in your words, remains pretty tepid.

Yeah, okay. I appreciate that you continue to get those questions. Nothing new there. I mean, we continue to execute well. I think there's a few things to point out here. One is, sequentially, our pricing has been very consistent for the last four or five quarters. We have managed pricing against whatever competitive thing we face, mainly in pipe. We've done that and kept our pricing consistent for a year now. We continue to grow in residential and non-residential, which are our two biggest segments and is where people try to come after us. We continue to work our costs pretty darn well. The profitability of that pipe thing is pretty consistent. We've executed a lot of different materials programs, engineering programs. Our logistics and transportation team has done a great job of working new programs and using our new assets.

We've completely refreshed our truck and trailer fleet over the last year, year and a half. We've done all these things to kind of manage price, materials, conversion through the CapEx. We offset a lot of that underabsorption. Our margins are pretty good. The resiliency of the margins in the face of that competition over the last year that you guys have been bringing up, it's not like we never had competition. We've always had some. I think we're proving that we have a resilient model. I don't believe in a tepid environment of demand like this that radical price actions increase demand. They don't. There's only so many projects that are going to come to the market. You got to have price discipline around that. I feel pretty good where we are.

I sometimes feel like I don't know what more I can do to demonstrate that we know how to manage this environment. We'll keep trying, keep working our programs, keep nailing down 30% plus margins. I guess we'll just keep moving on that path. I know that was a long answer, Garik, but I felt I wanted to really try to put that to bed for you.

No, I appreciate that. Yeah, thanks. I definitely look forward to moving forward.

Speaker 3

Your next question is from the line of David Edmund Tarantino with Quebec Capital Markets.

Hey, good morning, guys.

Speaker 2

Morning.

Maybe just on infrastructure. It sounds like the sales jobs form a function of tough compare. Could you walk us through the underlying demand trends there and how we should expect this to move forward?

Yeah, there are some tough comps in infrastructure, really driven by a lot of very nice airport projects that occurred a year ago. We're pretty strong in that, particularly in the retention/detention area. I don't like, hey, non-repeat of big projects, but that's kind of what happens in that segment. Mike, on the pipe side?

Speaker 0

Yeah, I think on the pipe side, you know, David, it's been kind of highly variable. We've talked to you guys previously about this. Scott mentioned it in the prepared comments about how our participation varies by state depending on the strength of our approvals and acceptance. It's really a case where we have half the states doing pretty well and then half the states being a bit slow. I would say as we look forward, project identification is flat, but we're not seeing as much at the DOT level, but seeing more at the local public infrastructure level, which those projects tend to be a bit smaller than what you see for the DOT. I think there are some other things you see out there too, right? I know everybody talks about, hey, only 50% of the infrastructure bill money has been outlaid, so there's stuff to come.

When you look at it, I think the contract counts nationwide by the various people you track, they're anywhere down from 3% to 11%, but the value of those contracts is up. What we're seeing is, hey, it's costing more to do these projects. More money, more cost, but fewer projects out there. Again, it's a big focus for us. We continue to work our go-to-market strategy, our market share model against executing there. We'll continue to work that.

Okay, great. Maybe following up on non-res, could you just give us a little bit more color on what you're seeing in terms of the pipeline of projects and orders relative to the tepid environment you guys outlined in the guide, and maybe frame for us how the conversion outgrowth is tracking relative to these trends?

Yeah, I would say the kind of the forward-looking indicators around project identification and quoting and the other kind of third-party metrics we look at line up with a tepid environment. We still think even though our share might be more mature in non-residential versus residential or infrastructure, in those key states in the South and the Southeast, where we have lots of opportunity for share gain, we're seeing strong sales in the quarter. We would attribute some of that to a little bit of, hey, those geographies might be a little stronger from an activity standpoint, but also that we're taking share. When you look at the states this quarter that were strongest from a volume perspective on non-residential, we like those states that we see: Florida, Texas, Tennessee, California. Those are all states that you guys have heard us talk about.

They're kind of in that lower half, the smile, the crescent, whatever you want to call it, and we had good volume growth in the quarter there. That shows us that the markets are on fire there. They might be a little better than the national average, but we're being successful taking share like Scott was talking about. The markets are tough. You're trying to get more share of wallet, acquire new customers, do more conversion. HP has been strong growth in those states as well. I think we kind of attribute it to, hey, we need to control what we can control, and that's the execution of our go-to-market strategy.

Speaker 3

Your next question is from the line of Michael Patrick Halloran with Baird.

Speaker 2

Good morning, everyone. Just a couple of quick guidance questions, just following up on it. First, on the revenue side, you had that slide last quarter that pretty aggressively detailed the revenue outlook from an end market perspective moving through the year. Curious if that's changed, if there's been any moving pieces in the thought process to the tepid market sitting here, and whether you just think normal seasonality is what's embedded in the guidance from our first quarter or some sort of deterioration. Any context around that would be great.

Speaker 0

No, I think our look to the end markets mirrors what we went out with guidance-wise, as adjusted for seasonality, as you mentioned, Michael. There is no change to our outlook right now to those end markets, which is why we're leaving our guidance unchanged.

Speaker 2

Okay. That's what I figured. Similarly, on the margin line of things, if I hear all of the commentary around the puts and takes with margins, there really wasn't anything unsustainable in the first quarter margin here other than possibly mix. I heard Scott Barbour's comments on more concern over what demand looks like back half of the year. That's partially why there's some caution around the margin line. What I would like to confirm here is a couple of things. One, just that the sequentials, as you're thinking about the margins, haven't really changed or the thought process around it hasn't really changed. Secondarily, are there any moving pieces here that we need to think about other than, again, maybe mix normalizing that would lead to more compression than normal versus that first quarter number?

Essentially, you look at the next three quarters relative to where the first quarter is, there is an implication of something a little bit worse than normal. It doesn't seem that's what you're saying. Any context there would be helpful.

Speaker 0

No, that's exactly what we're not saying. Again, I think when you look at that, kind of how those margins will convey through the year, especially Q1 to Q2. Q2 usually looks a lot like Q1. Obviously, there's going to be puts and takes there, based on our Q1 performance. Again, it's one quarter, choppy, tepid end markets. We're comfortable leaving the guidance ranges where they are right now.

Speaker 2

Yeah. What I would add is my worry, Mike, is the demand side. If that demand side is weaker than I anticipate in the plan, is that going to cause me some absorption problems? I got to go work. As far as pricing and materials and our ability to convert and our ability to transport, the mix of Infiltrator and allied versus pipe and all that, I'd say we're kind of per the norm, in terms of these first half, second half, and then relative growth rates of the various segments.

Speaker 3

Your next question is from the line of Ryan Michael Connors with Norcost Research.

Thank you. Good morning. I had a couple of questions here. Most of mine have been answered, but a couple of big pictures. First of all, I know there's been some drama among some of the bigger players in distributions and new players coming in. I'm just curious if there's anything to call out there in terms of any impact on your business from a volume or a margin standpoint. Is there inventory building or drawdowns, any discounting, anything with that volatility in the panel?

Speaker 2

Good question. Drama is a good word, I'd say. The answer is that we believe that to be largely in the past relative to us. There would be nothing from an inventory build or mix or different behavior that we would call out on that. We're always dealing with some level of change and drama, you know, relative to distribution and end markets and customers. It was a bit heightened there for a while, but I'd say it's calmed down, Ryan. We do, though, always look for opportunities to run programs, to do stuff, but it's not affecting our business in any spectacular way.

Got it. Okay. That's helpful. Just big picture, you know, if my math is correct, pipe was barely 50% of sales in the quarter. It's 50.1% is what I got. Kind of heading towards this milestone where pipe actually becomes less than half of the company, which is pretty amazing when you, you know, we remember the days when it was, you know, 90/10 pipe and allied products. What's the long-term vision? Should we expect pipe to just continue to be declining in the mix over, you know, two, three, four years, and at some point, it's, you know, a third or a quarter of the company, or do we kind of stabilize and we should think about that 50/50 kind of being, you know, where the company wants to be longer term?

Yeah, good. Again, another good question. I don't see it being a quarter or a third of the business for sure. I see it kind of bouncing around. It's 50/50. I always kind of come back to our long-term strategy is to grow the Infiltrator Water Technologies business and the allied products business faster than the pipe business because we believe we are less penetrated, particularly in the allied products than the pipe. We therefore have more kind of open space and growth opportunities. We will continue to work that. Whether it goes to 40% at some point, I would see that being the low watermark of it. We do think it's very important for us as a company to grow our higher margin product lines faster than the company average to create positive mix for the company. That's kind of core to my strategy for the company.

Got it. Okay. Very helpful. Best of luck. Thanks for your time.

Thank you.

Speaker 3

At this time, there are no further questions. I will now hand the call back over to our presenters for any closing remarks.

Speaker 2

We appreciate all the questions today and the participation in the call. We feel good about the quarter. We feel good about how we're executing. I'll just reiterate, we're worried about demand. I don't think it's things that we might do that we're doing. I think it's just the environment that we're in. We also know we have the right long-term trends and long-term water positioning for our onsite septic wastewater solutions business, our wastewater business through Infiltrator Water Technologies, and our allied products and pipe business through Advanced Drainage Systems. We like the hand we're dealt. We see good needs from the CapEx and opportunities of the cash. We'll continue to be very focused on that as a management team and our board. That said, we appreciate it. Thank you. We look forward to the follow-up calls and seeing you all around.

Speaker 3

This concludes today's call. Thank you for joining. You may now disconnect your lines.