Applied Industrial Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:AIT) Q4 2022 Results Conference Call August 11, 2022 10:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Ryan Cieslak - Director, Investor Relations and Treasury

Neil Schrimsher - President & Chief Executive Officer

Dave Wells - Chief Financial Officer

Conference Call Participants

Ken Newman - KeyBanc Capital Markets

Chris Dankert - Loop Capital

David Manthey - Baird

Ken Newman - KeyBanc Capital Markets

Operator

Welcome to the fiscal 2022 Fourth Quarter Earnings Call for Applied Industrial Technologies. My name is Ingrid and I'll be 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. [Operator Instructions] Please note that this conference is being recorded.

I will now turn the call over to Ryan Cieslak, Director of Investor Relations and Treasury. Ryan, you may begin.

Ryan Cieslak

Thanks, Ingrid, and good morning to everyone on the call. This morning, we issued our earnings release and supplemental investor deck detailing our fourth quarter results.

Both of these documents are available in the Investor Relations section of applied.com. Before we begin, just a reminder, we'll discuss our business outlook and make forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements are based on current expectations subject to certain risks and uncertainties, including those detailed in our SEC filings.

Actual results may differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements. The Company undertakes no obligation to update publicly or revise any forward-looking statement. In addition, the conference call will use non-GAAP financial measures which are subject to the qualifications referenced in those documents.

Our speakers today include Neil Schrimsher, Applied's President and Chief Executive Officer; and Dave Wells, our Chief Financial Officer.

With that, I'll turn it over to Neil.

Neil Schrimsher

Thanks, Ryan, and good morning, everyone. We appreciate you joining us. I'll start today with some perspective on our fourth quarter results, current industry conditions and our expectations going forward. Dave will follow with more specific detail on the quarter's performance and our forward outlook, including fiscal 2023 guidance, and I'll then close with some final thoughts.

So overall, very encouraged how we ended the year. We achieved another quarter of record performance across sales and earnings. EBITDA grew 27% and EPS was up 34% on 19% sales growth. We also continued to expand EBITDA margins, achieving new highs above 11% for the second straight quarter despite ongoing inflationary headwinds.

All these numbers include meaningful LIFO headwinds as well. In total, these are strong results to end the year that included significant progress on many fronts, including continuing to position the Company for long-term success through continuous improvement actions, growth investments and reinforcing our balance sheet through debt reduction.