Teledyne Technologies Q2 2023 Earnings Report

Teledyne Technologies EPS Results

• Actual EPS: $4.67
• Consensus EPS: $4.63
• Beat/Miss: Beat by +$0.04
• One Year Ago EPS: $4.43

Teledyne Technologies Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: $1.42 billion
• Expected Revenue: $1.41 billion
• Beat/Miss: Beat by +$12.14 million
• YoY Revenue Growth: +5.10%

Teledyne Technologies Announcement Details

• Quarter: Q2 2023
• Date: 7/26/2023
• Time: Before Market Opens
• Conference Call Date: Wednesday, July 26, 2023
• Conference Call Time: 11:00AM ET

Teledyne Technologies (NYSE:TDY) (NYSE: TDY), headquartered in Thousand Oaks, California, is a diversified industrial technology company that designs, manufactures and supports sophisticated electronic systems, instruments and imaging products. Founded in 1960 by Henry Singleton and George Kozmetsky, Teledyne has grown into a multinational provider of high-performance equipment and software for commercial, scientific and government customers. Its offerings are used in markets that include aerospace and defense, marine, industrial manufacturing, environmental monitoring and scientific research.

The company operates through businesses that develop precision instrumentation, digital imaging products, engineered systems and aerospace and defense electronics. Instrumentation products include sensors, analyzers and test-and-measurement equipment for process control, environmental monitoring and laboratory use. Its digital imaging lines provide cameras, detectors and machine-vision systems—expanded notably through strategic acquisitions—to serve automated inspection, scientific imaging and thermal imaging applications. Engineered systems encompass integrated platforms and services for marine and industrial customers, including sonar, submersibles and related underwater technologies, while aerospace and defense offerings cover avionics components, electronic subsystems and specialized sensors.

Teledyne serves customers around the world and maintains a largely decentralized operating model that emphasizes technology development and targeted acquisitions to broaden its product portfolio and geographic reach. The company supplies mission-critical products to commercial industry, research institutions and government agencies globally, and it combines hardware with software and data-analysis capabilities to support complex sensing and imaging applications. Teledyne is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol TDY.

Teledyne Technologies Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

• Teledyne reported record quarterly sales up 5.1% year-over-year, with GAAP operating margin at a 2Q record of 18% and non-GAAP margin at 21.4%, driving GAAP EPS of $3.87 and non-GAAP EPS of $4.67 while reducing leverage to 2.1× through $620 million of debt repayments.
• The company announced $10 million–$12 million of pre-tax charges to consolidate the FLIR operating footprint and eliminate three leased sites, impacting near-term earnings.
• All segments delivered year-over-year growth: Instrumentation sales rose 5.1% with a margin record of 24.8%, Aerospace & Defense Electronics grew 10.2% with ~250 bps margin expansion, and Engineering Systems posted 18.5% revenue growth and 33.7% profit growth.
• Teledyne reaffirmed its full-year 2023 outlook, targeting approximately 5% sales growth to $7.3 billion and non-GAAP EPS of $19.10 at the midpoint, with Q3 revenue expected around $1.4 billion.
• Foreign currency translation drove a ~40 basis-point headwind to 2Q sales growth, which would have otherwise been 5.5% on a local currency basis.

Presentation

[Operator]

Ladies and gentlemen, good morning. Thank you for standing by. Today's conference is assembled. Welcome to the Teledyne Technologies second quarter earnings call. At this time, all lines are in a listen-only mode. Later will be an opportunity. We'll give you the replay instructions at the end of the call. If you require any assistance today, please press star, followed by the zero, and an AT&T operator will assist you. This time, it's my pleasure to turn the conference over to our host, Jason VanWees. Please go ahead.

[Jason VanWees, Vice Chairman at Teledyne Technologies]

Thank you, Dom. This is Jason VanWees, vice chairman, and I'd like to welcome everyone to Teledyne's second quarter 2023 earnings release conference call. We released our earnings earlier this morning before the market opened. Joining me today are Teledyne's chairman, president, and CEO, Robert Mehrabian; senior vice president, and CFO, Sue Main; and senior vice president, general counsel, chief compliance officer, and secretary, Melanie Cibik. Also joining is Edwin Roks, executive VP. After remarks by Robert and Sue, we will ask for your questions. Before we get started, our attorneys have reminded me to tell you that all forward-looking statements made this morning are subject to various assumptions, risks, and caveats, as noted in our earnings release and our periodic SEC filings. Actual results may differ materially.

[Jason VanWees, Vice Chairman at Teledyne Technologies]

In order to avoid potential selective disclosures, this call is simultaneously being webcast and a replay, both via webcast and dial-in, will be available for approximately one month. Here's Robert.

[Robert Mehrabian, Chairman, President, and CEO at Teledyne Technologies]

Thank you, Jason, and thank you for joining our earnings call. In the second quarter, we achieved all-time record quarterly sales, with overall sales increasing 5.1%. Furthermore, sales as well as GAAP and non-GAAP operating profit and operating margin increased year-over-year in every segment. For the total company, GAAP and non-GAAP operating margins increased 105 and 73 basis points, respectively. Excluding foreign currency headwind, which negatively impacted second quarter sales growth by approximately 40 basis points, growth in local currency would have been 5.5%. GAAP operating margin of 18% was a second quarter record, and non-GAAP operating margin was 21.4%. Second quarter GAAP earnings per share were $3.87, and non-GAAP earnings of $4.67 were also second quarter records.

[Robert Mehrabian, Chairman, President, and CEO at Teledyne Technologies]

Finally, including continued debt repayment through July, which totaled about $620 million years-to-date, our consolidated leverage ratio declined to 2.1x. I'll now comment a bit further on the performance of Teledyne FLIR and the announced cost reductions and the outlook for the balance of the year. In the two years since we bought FLIR, we've resolved the most significant legacy tax matters, exited the consent agreement with the Department of State, consolidated leadership in marketing and operations for the FLIR Defense portfolio, and corrected some historical product quality issues. As part of this effort, we also took a much more focused view of the defense business, aggressively pursuing those opportunities where we have truly differentiated technology. I am pleased to report that the order book and backlog of FLIR, especially FLIR Defense, significantly inflected during the second quarter.

[Robert Mehrabian, Chairman, President, and CEO at Teledyne Technologies]

For reference, the commercial business across Digital Imaging, both DALSA, e2v, and FLIR, grew organically in the second quarter. While FLIR Defense sales declined year-over-year, nearly all of this was lower revenue in unmanned ground systems as we achieved the milestone of shipping our 1,000th Man Transportable Robotic System, Increment II, to the US Army. Overall, orders at all of FLIR were 1.18x sales and 1.5x sales at FLIR Defense. Larger orders not only included the recently announced Black Hornet Nano UAV to the U.S. military, but also additional UAVs for customers in Europe, as well as counter-UAV systems and missile defense systems utilizing both FLIR imaging, radar, and AI-based software systems. Additionally, more surveillance imaging systems for the U.S. and foreign customers.

[Robert Mehrabian, Chairman, President, and CEO at Teledyne Technologies]

Having stabilized the business, including achieving stronger backlog, it is now time to focus on execution and additional margin improvement. Thus, the charges announced this morning are for the further reduction in the FLIR operating footprint and related headcount. We are accelerating the elimination of three lease sites, all of whose activities will be relocated to other FLIR defense facilities, most of which are owned locations. Today, we are reaffirming our prior 2023 full year sales and non-GAAP earnings outlook, excluding the $10 million-$12 million charges that I just covered. Supply chain challenges have continued to improve, and we were once again able to exceed our original second quarter sales and earnings outlook by pulling forward some revenue from the third quarter.

[Robert Mehrabian, Chairman, President, and CEO at Teledyne Technologies]

On revenue specifically, we continue to see total 2023 growth of approximately 5% or sales of approximately $5.73 billion, with the third quarter being roughly $1.4 billion. We continue to see non-GAAP earnings of $19.10 at the midpoint of our guidance, excluding the charges referenced above.

[Robert Mehrabian, Chairman, President, and CEO at Teledyne Technologies]

I will now further comment on the performance of the four business segments. Second quarter sales in our Digital Imaging segment increased 2.3%, with greater sales of X-ray products, commercial infrared imaging components and solution, and industrial scientific cameras, partially offset by lower sales of unmanned ground systems for defense applications. GAAP segment operating margin increased 51 basis points to 15.7% and adjusted for reduced intangible asset amortization, non-GAAP segment margin was 28 basis points higher at 21.5%.

[Robert Mehrabian, Chairman, President, and CEO at Teledyne Technologies]

Turning to our Instrumentation segment, overall second quarter sales increased 5.1% versus last year. Sales of marine instruments increased a healthy 10.5% in the quarter, primarily due to ongoing recovery in offshore energy markets, also greater sales of autonomous underwater vehicles. Sales of electronic test and measurement systems, which include oscilloscopes, digitizers, and protocol analyzers, collectively increased 4.9%. We encountered some softness in sales of analyzers for electronic storage and data center application, but this was more than offset by sales for wireless and video protocols, as well as continued strong sales of oscilloscopes. Sales of environmental instruments were flat compared to last year, with greater sales of air quality, process gas, safety analyzers offset by drug discovery and laboratory instruments.

[Robert Mehrabian, Chairman, President, and CEO at Teledyne Technologies]

Overall, Instrumentation segment operating profit increased 10.6% in the second quarter, with GAAP operating margin increasing 123 basis points to 24.8% and 80 basis points on a non-GAAP basis, excluding reducing the intangible asset amortization to 25.9%. In the Aerospace and Defense Electronics segment, second quarter sales increased 10.2%, driven by growth of both defense electronics and commercial aerospace products. GAAP and non-GAAP segment operating profit increased over 20%, with margins approximately 250 basis points greater than last year. In the Engineered Systems segment, second quarter revenue increased 18.5%, and operating profit increased 33.7%, representing a 112 basis points increase in margin from last year.

[Robert Mehrabian, Chairman, President, and CEO at Teledyne Technologies]

In conclusion, our short-term, more economically sensitive businesses remained resilient in the second quarter, collectively growing year-over-year. Comparisons for some do become more difficult in the second half. Our longer-cycle medical, aerospace, defense, and marine businesses continued to perform very well. Quarterly operating margin in our Instrumentation segment was an all-time record. Operating margin in our Aerospace and Defense Electronics segment was a second quarter record and just slightly less than the fourth quarter of last year. Now, through a combination of sales growth, operating leverage, and the more aggressive cost actions mentioned earlier, I fully expect Digital Imaging margins to grow considerably over time. I want to turn the call over to Sue.

[Sue Main, SVP and CFO at Teledyne Technologies]

Thank you, Robert, and good morning, everyone. I will first discuss some additional financials for the quarter not covered by Robert, and then I will discuss our third quarter and full year 2023 outlook. In the second quarter, cash flow from operating activities was $190.5 million. Free cash flow, that is, cash from operating activities, less capital expenditures, was $163.2 million in the second quarter of 2023, compared with $176.1 million in 2022. Capital expenditures were $27.3 million in the second quarter of 2023, compared with $20.8 million in 2022. Depreciation and amortization expense was $80 million for the second quarter of 2023, compared with $82.7 million.

[Sue Main, SVP and CFO at Teledyne Technologies]

We ended the quarter with approximately $2.99 billion of net debt. That is approximately $3.35 billion of debt, less cash of $364.2 million. Stock-based compensation expense was $8.4 million in the second quarter of 2023, compared with $6.4 million in 2022. Turning to our outlook. Management currently believes that GAAP earnings per share in the third quarter of 2023 will be in the range of $3.76-$3.90 per share, with non-GAAP earnings in the range of $4.70-$4.80.

[Sue Main, SVP and CFO at Teledyne Technologies]

For the full year 2023, our GAAP earnings per share outlook is $15.60-$15.88. On a non-GAAP basis, we are maintaining our prior outlook of $19.00-$19.20. Both the third quarter and full year non-GAAP outlooks exclude estimated pre-tax charges for further FLIR integration costs. The 2023 full year estimated tax rate, excluding discrete items, is expected to be 22.3%. I'll now pass the call back to Robert.

[Robert Mehrabian, Chairman, President, and CEO at Teledyne Technologies]

Thank you very much, Sue. We would now like to take your questions. Operator, if you're ready to proceed with the questions and answers, please go ahead.

[Operator]

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen on the phone lines, if you'd like to ask a question today, please press one, followed by the zero. One, followed by the zero. Our first question today will come from the line of Jim Ricchiuti. Please go ahead.

[Jim Ricchiuti, Senior Analyst at Needham]

Thank you. Hopefully you can hear me okay. Wanted to talk a little bit, Robert, if I may, about Digital Imaging. If we exclude the acquisitions, it looks like your revenues were down year-on-year and sequentially, and some of this may be partly due to what you're seeing at FLIR. I wonder if you could just expand on what you're seeing in Digital Imaging, just because it's a large category that covers a lot of ground.

[Robert Mehrabian, Chairman, President, and CEO at Teledyne Technologies]

Well, thank you. I think, what you're referring to is in the organic growth or decline year-over-year.

[Jim Ricchiuti, Senior Analyst at Needham]

Yes.

[Robert Mehrabian, Chairman, President, and CEO at Teledyne Technologies]

It was a little over 1% decline, 1.5%, to be exact. We see several things. First, there are government programs that we have in Digital Imaging, especially in FLIR, that declined year-over-year. On the other hand, as I mentioned, we had a very successful first half, especially second quarter, in getting orders for products both here and in Europe. We feel that that part of the business is stabilized. On the rest of Digital Imaging, if you look at healthcare, which is part of our business there's been significant expansion in healthcare and medical. If you look at commercial aero, any parts of Digital Imaging that deal with, let's say, satellite communication, there has been expansion.

[Robert Mehrabian, Chairman, President, and CEO at Teledyne Technologies]

I think there is some headwind in the commercial part of Digital Imaging in the Far East, but our exposure there is not that high, and we're making that up with new products, and that includes some of our artificial intelligence capabilities. We, we feel comfortable with our commercial aspects of our Digital Imaging. In summary, I would say that there is a little pressure on parts of our Digital Imaging in the Far East, especially China, but this is offset by other products that we manufacture for Europe and the U.S. I would say machine vision, which is what I'm referring to, is gonna be relatively flat, maybe a little down year-over-year, but the other parts of Digital Imaging are gonna be healthy, and we feel pretty good about that.

[Robert Mehrabian, Chairman, President, and CEO at Teledyne Technologies]

All in all, it's a big part of our portfolio, but it's a pretty varied portfolio ranging from space to medical to machine vision for automated semiconductor inspections, flat panel displays, et cetera. It's like Teledyne, it's pretty resilient to various economic conditions.

[Jim Ricchiuti, Senior Analyst at Needham]

Thank you for that. Follow-up question, I wonder if you could talk a little bit about, just an update on the rate at which you may be burning through some of that higher-cost component inventory that you had. Just in general, it sounds like supply chain has gotten better, and how you're seeing that part of the, the business.

[Robert Mehrabian, Chairman, President, and CEO at Teledyne Technologies]

Yeah, I think, you're right. As I mentioned earlier, our supply chain issues have significantly moderated. We're still paying some premiums, but perhaps as much as year to date, 65%-70% lower than we did at the first quarter, second quarter of last year. That's a positive. We're still paying some premium, and our inventory remained fairly flat between first quarter and second quarter. As these supply chain issues relax, we're going to reduce our inventory for the remainder of the year. I feel good about how we've dealt with the supply chain. We really didn't lose a whole lot of revenue because of that.

[Jim Ricchiuti, Senior Analyst at Needham]

If I could just slip one more in, apologies, but you did talk about some pull-in from Q3. I wonder if you would size that for us?

[Robert Mehrabian, Chairman, President, and CEO at Teledyne Technologies]

I'm gonna say approximately $10 million. Not a whole lot, but, you know, when we have the opportunity, and I hope we will have in the future quarters, we're gonna try and do that. The flip side of that, Jim, is that a lot of our customers had also ordered a lot of inventory, anticipating shortages, so they're a little resistant about letting us ship all the stuff that they've ordered before. We're balancing that because, again, our balanced portfolio help us along in all of those directions.

[Jim Ricchiuti, Senior Analyst at Needham]

Got it. Thanks very much.

[Robert Mehrabian, Chairman, President, and CEO at Teledyne Technologies]

Thank you.

[Operator]

Our next question will come from the line of Joe Giordano, representing TD Cowen. Please go ahead.

[Joe Giordano, Managing Director at TD Cowen]

Good morning, guys. I wanna continue first on DI, 'cause I'd say 90%+ of the questions I get from investors are about the margins there. I mean, I think they, over the last couple of quarters, they've probably come in, and the outlook has come in a little bit below what you thought. I know there's some elements, you know, high margin, machine vision, probably, market declines there. Can you talk about what's been slightly different than you thought on the margin side? How should we really think about that business kind of into 2020, into 2024? Like, what's realistic, for, like, a baseline margin assumption there?

[Robert Mehrabian, Chairman, President, and CEO at Teledyne Technologies]

Uh, let me start with, um, second quarter margin. Uh, actually, second quarter Digital Imaging margin is up about 28bbasis points, let's say 30 basis points, year-over-year. And, uh, we think for the year, it might, it will be probably flat, maybe down about 10 or 15 basis points, but relatively flat. Uh, I think, uh, what, what, what, what's gonna happen is that the flare margins are gonna increase somewhat, and the, uh, historic or legacy digital imaging, they're gonna decline a little bit. Basically, we think year-over-year, it's gonna be flat. Uh, we've had, as I mentioned before, we've had a slower revenue and lower revenue in defense in the first half of the year. But as I mentioned earlier, that's turning around now, so I think that's gonna help us for the rest of the year.

[Robert Mehrabian, Chairman, President, and CEO at Teledyne Technologies]

That's about really all I can say about the margins. I think, second quarter, year-over-year, we saw an improvement of about 28-30 basis points. For the whole year, it might be flat or down, maybe 15 basis points, but not much. Again, the balanced portfolio is really gonna help us. The flip side of it is, if you look at our Aerospace and Defense segment, there, second quarter margins increased 247 basis points, and for the year, we're projecting 80 basis points expansion. Sometimes when we look at defense, yes, we differentiate defense that's in Digital Imaging, what I've talked about before. We have a whole bunch of defense programs in our Aerospace and Defense portfolio, which are doing really well. Overall, I think we're okay.

[Joe Giordano, Managing Director at TD Cowen]

Just one quick clarification. I know DI margins are up year-on-year, but sequentially, they were down on higher revenue. Was there, like, a mix change going on there? Then I have a quick question on Test and Measurement.

[Robert Mehrabian, Chairman, President, and CEO at Teledyne Technologies]

I don't know, they were down sequentially, what, about 20 basis points? I'm not so concerned about that. There's so many moving parts in there that it just balances itself out. That's not something that worries me.

[Joe Giordano, Managing Director at TD Cowen]

Okay.

[Robert Mehrabian, Chairman, President, and CEO at Teledyne Technologies]

That's all I'll say about that. Go ahead with your other area, please.

[Joe Giordano, Managing Director at TD Cowen]

Just curious on if you have any color on, like, the order intake for things like oscilloscopes versus the revenue delivery now. Like, I know the revenue's strong. Are orders starting to slow there? I'm just curious, like, what that revenue trend looks like. Like, how much backlog do you have? How fast is that kind of coming out, and is it being replenished at the same pace?

[Robert Mehrabian, Chairman, President, and CEO at Teledyne Technologies]

Yeah, as you know, on the Test and Measurement, we have two distinct product lines. One is oscilloscopes, the other is protocols. The both of those are relatively short-term revenue, so big backlog, but doesn't make a whole lot of difference. Our oscilloscope revenue in Q2 was outstanding, really good. Our protocol revenue was relatively flat, and partially that's because new protocols are coming out in September, and we expect that revenue to pick up. If you look at the whole year, we think that we're gonna have something like 3.5%-4% growth in our oscilloscope and protocol products. We think third and fourth quarter are gonna be all right. They may not expand as much as the first quarter, but year-over-year, we're gonna be fine.

[Robert Mehrabian, Chairman, President, and CEO at Teledyne Technologies]

In terms of just answering your question on backlog, book-to-bill in that Test and Measurement is very close to 1. It's 0.98, so I would say it's 1. Again, it's not something that concerns me right now.

[Joe Giordano, Managing Director at TD Cowen]

Thanks.

[Robert Mehrabian, Chairman, President, and CEO at Teledyne Technologies]

Thank you.

[Operator]

Our next question will be from the line of Greg Konrad with Jefferies. Please go ahead.

[Greg Konrad, SVP of Equity Research at Jefferies]

Good morning.

[Robert Mehrabian, Chairman, President, and CEO at Teledyne Technologies]

Good morning, Greg.

[Greg Konrad, SVP of Equity Research at Jefferies]

Maybe just one clarification. I mean, it seems like you brought down, you didn't change guidance for the year, but brought down Digital Imaging. You talked about the strength in A&D. You know, has there been any change to the overall company margin guidance for the year, just given it seems like A&D is tracking ahead, and Instrumentation continues to be, you know, maybe slightly above expectations?

[Robert Mehrabian, Chairman, President, and CEO at Teledyne Technologies]

Yeah, I'd say, if you went back to April, guidance versus today, probably margin is going down 10 basis points. Again, nothing significant. For the full year, we expect margin to go up about 26-30 basis points year-over-year. Overall, I'd say that's not something that concerns me, because as I've mentioned several times, because of our diversity of our products, for example, Instrumentation margin will go up 80 basis points year-over-year. Aerospace and Defense, similarly, 80 basis points. Even Engineered Systems will go up about 38-40 basis points. A flat Digital Imaging doesn't change anything at this time.

[Greg Konrad, SVP of Equity Research at Jefferies]

I mean, you talked about FLIR Defense and kind of what you're seeing on the order front, and, you know, A&D performance top line was really strong in the quarter. I mean, what are you seeing across Teledyne as it relates to Defense, and how are you kind of thinking about runway, just given orders and, you know, some of the 2023 budget money coming through?

[Robert Mehrabian, Chairman, President, and CEO at Teledyne Technologies]

Yeah, as you mentioned, there's been a change in the budget. For a long time, the budgets looked healthy, but money wasn't coming through, it started to come through more recently. Overall, I'd say, we are fairly comfortable with our Defense businesses, probably across everything, mid-single, single digits, growth year-over-year. We are enjoying actually pretty good margins and orders in our legacy Defense businesses. As I mentioned, FLIR's Defense businesses are turning around and had a good book-to-bill in Q2. It's not just the U.S. Defense.

[Robert Mehrabian, Chairman, President, and CEO at Teledyne Technologies]

If you look at Defense also in NATO countries, the expenditures are increasing, and we have a significant amount of sales overseas in both our Defense as well as Teledyne FLIR Defense, including things like traveling wave tubes for missile defense products in places like South Korea. It's a pretty healthy environment right now.

[Greg Konrad, SVP of Equity Research at Jefferies]

I'll leave it at that. Thank you.

[Robert Mehrabian, Chairman, President, and CEO at Teledyne Technologies]

Thank you.

[Operator]

We'll give one, another reminder, one followed by zero if you have questions on this, today's call. Let's go to the line of Jordan Lyonnais with BOA. Please go ahead.

[Jordan Lyonnais, Equity Research Associate at BOA]

Hey, good morning. This is Jordan with Bank of America. I just had a quick question on the backlog for Defense. Are you guys seeing any specific constraints that could put the deliveries at risk? Also, too, for those wins, should we expect the majority of them to come through for 2023 or extend out into the out years?

[Robert Mehrabian, Chairman, President, and CEO at Teledyne Technologies]

Some will come through in 2023, and some will come through in, starting in Q4. For example, let me just give you one example or two. We, we do have some counter-drone products that are going to Europe, probably about $25 million, $26 million. Most of that would come in 2023. On the other hand, the Black Hornet 3 that we just announced for the U.S. Army, it's $94 million. Only about 10% of it will come this year, the rest will come in future years. It's a balance. I think we'll get some of it this year and a lot of it in future years.

[Jordan Lyonnais, Equity Research Associate at BOA]

Got it. Thank you.

[Robert Mehrabian, Chairman, President, and CEO at Teledyne Technologies]

Thank you.

[Operator]

Go to the line of Guy Hardwick with Credit Suisse. Please go ahead.

[Guy Hardwick, Equity Research Analyst at Credit Suisse]

Hi, good morning.

[Robert Mehrabian, Chairman, President, and CEO at Teledyne Technologies]

Morning, Guy.

[Guy Hardwick, Equity Research Analyst at Credit Suisse]

Robert, I think you said in your prepared remarks that Digital Imaging margins should grow considerably over time. Could you a little bit flesh that out a little bit for us? What is over time, and could this mean that Digital Imaging margins exceed the sort of 24% levels I think that you delivered in 2021?

[Robert Mehrabian, Chairman, President, and CEO at Teledyne Technologies]

Yes. The answer is yes. The reason I say that is the margins in our legacy businesses are already around that, and even higher than that. I think FLIR margins will increase, especially as we take the cost out that I just mentioned. Overall margins for Digital Imaging this year, we're projecting to be 22.3%. To go to 24 to a 170 basis point expansion, yes, we can do that.

[Guy Hardwick, Equity Research Analyst at Credit Suisse]

I think last quarter, you'd pointed out, you know, negative mix, lag of price increases, I think, in the medical business. Was there any other mix effects, other than Defense, that you talked about in Q2? Is there anything else that we should be aware of which, you know, may have held back margins? I think three months ago, you did expect sequential improvement and 30 basis points up for the full year.

[Robert Mehrabian, Chairman, President, and CEO at Teledyne Technologies]

Yes. I think in the Healthcare business, things are really good for us. We've had significant expansion, both in our X-ray products, that is, panels as well as components that we put out for X-ray systems. As I said before, there is some slowdown in China. If you look at China as a whole, they have had some contraction, even though you don't hear about it. There's been some contraction there. On the other hand, less than 10% of our portfolio is sold to China. Again, the, our balanced portfolio helps us. The flip side also is that we've gotten some really good, higher margin, products, development programs that are helping overall Digital Imaging.

[Robert Mehrabian, Chairman, President, and CEO at Teledyne Technologies]

Shipments have been a little slower, I think bookings are okay. I'm again, it's not something that worries me. Where we don't have, let's say, a commercial imaging system that somebody would buy in China, on the flip side, we have custom products that we're developing which are very profitable, actually more profitable than commercial. I sit here today, and I'm just looking at our portfolio, and I wouldn't change it with anybody else's, considering all the uncertainty around the world. One area may go down a little bit, we pick it up at somewhere else, and that's the resilience of our earnings year-over-year, quarter-over-quarter.

[Guy Hardwick, Equity Research Analyst at Credit Suisse]

Thank you. Just one last one for me. In Aerospace and Defense Electronics, I think previously you'd mentioned that you benefited from a particularly good mix there. Is that, presumably, that has continued in Q2, and is, assume that continues in the second half, given your guidance for the margin?

[Robert Mehrabian, Chairman, President, and CEO at Teledyne Technologies]

Yes. We think we may have a little lower revenue in the second half. The products that we make in Aerospace go primarily in commercial aircraft, and that market's expanded, as you well know, very close to pre-COVID. Q3, Q4 margins for Aerospace and Defense might be a little lower than Q2, but it'll be higher than Q1. Again, I don't see major inflections in that area.

[Jason VanWees, Vice Chairman at Teledyne Technologies]

Thank you.

[Robert Mehrabian, Chairman, President, and CEO at Teledyne Technologies]

Thank you.

[Operator]

We'll go to line of, Jim Ricchiuti, with a follow-up from Needham. Please go ahead.

[Jim Ricchiuti, Senior Analyst at Needham]

You gave us some book-to-bills, and I'm just wondering if you could, perhaps provide us the book-to-bill in the, in the different segments. I feel like I've got pieces of it.

[Robert Mehrabian, Chairman, President, and CEO at Teledyne Technologies]

Sure. Jim, in the Instruments, our book-to-bill is about 1.05, so over 1, led by our marine businesses, which are doing really well, both in underwater vehicles as well as the oil discovery and production. In the Digital Imaging as a whole, the book-to-bill is about 1.07. In Aerospace and Defense, that's a little more, and Engineered Systems, those are much more lumpy orders. Quarter-over-quarter, book-to-bill may change, but it's not affecting the revenue that much because we expect both revenue in both segments to grow. Overall, across the company, our book-to-bill is about 1.

[Jim Ricchiuti, Senior Analyst at Needham]

Okay. Last question from me. Just given the debt pay down, I'm wondering how, if anything has changed with respect to thinking about acquisitions, including any change in areas that you might be pursuing. I know you can't be specific, but I'm just wondering, just in general, how, what your appetite is for M&A as you look out over the next several quarters?

[Robert Mehrabian, Chairman, President, and CEO at Teledyne Technologies]

Well, as I mentioned earlier, Jim, we paid down $620 million this year, effective today, let's say. That's taken our net debt to EBITDA ratio to 2.1. We have about $60 million of debt left that's variable, which we pay 6% out of the $3 billion that, $3 billion+ that Sue mentioned. The rest of our debt is all fixed. Other than that $60 million, our interest payments are 2.1% in future years, which is a very healthy place to be because we haven't really touched our line of credit, so we have a lot of capability to do acquisitions.

[Robert Mehrabian, Chairman, President, and CEO at Teledyne Technologies]

Last year, even as we were paying our debt down, last year, we did three bolt-on acquisitions and spent about $160 million. We'll expect to continue that bolt-on acquisitions. On the flip side is that because if we don't do anything else, if we don't make acquisitions, if we don't doing anything, our debt to EBITDA ratio is gonna go less than 1 in about a year, and a year and a half. We're bullish about acquisitions, including larger ones, if we can find them, and of course, we're continuously looking at that.

[Robert Mehrabian, Chairman, President, and CEO at Teledyne Technologies]

The last question was what areas? Right now, I would say in the general Instrumentation area is what's very attractive. We have done some Digital Imaging acquisitions. As you know, we made the ETM acquisition. We made the acquisition for our, ChartWorld acquisition. I think it'd be nice if we could find some things in our Instrumentation area.

[Jim Ricchiuti, Senior Analyst at Needham]

Got it. Thanks very much.

[Operator]

We have no other participants queued up at this time.

[Robert Mehrabian, Chairman, President, and CEO at Teledyne Technologies]

Thank you, operator. I'll now ask Jason to conclude our conference call.

[Jason VanWees, Vice Chairman at Teledyne Technologies]

Thanks, Robert, and thanks, Thomas. If you give the replay information, to the audience, I would appreciate it. Again, all our news releases are available, and for those who wanna talk to me, please feel free to call me at the number on the earnings release. Thanks, everyone. Bye.

[Operator]

Absolutely. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. To dial into the replay, it will be available this morning and starting today at 10 A.M. in the Pacific Time Zone, lasting through August 25th at midnight. You may access the AT&T playback service at any time by dialing... One moment, please, let me get that number for you. My screen. Okay, there it goes. By dialing 1-800, or excuse me, 866-207-1041. Again, that number is 866-207-1041. Please enter the access code of 2597973. The access code is 2597973. That'll be available for 1 month through August 25th at midnight.

[Operator]

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Participants

Executives

• Jason VanWees, Vice Chairman
• Robert Mehrabian, Chairman, President, and CEO
• Sue Main, SVP and CFO

Analysts

• Greg Konrad, SVP of Equity Research at Jefferies
• Guy Hardwick, Equity Research Analyst at Credit Suisse
• Jim Ricchiuti, Senior Analyst at Needham
• Joe Giordano, Managing Director at TD Cowen
• Jordan Lyonnais, Equity Research Associate at BOA