Astec Industries Inc

NASDAQ:ASTE

Earnings Call Transcript 2023-Q1

[Operator]

Hello, and welcome to the Astec Industries First Quarter Earnings Call. As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded.

It is my pleasure to introduce your host, Steve Anderson, Senior Vice President of Administration and Investor Relations. Mr. Anderson, you may begin.

[Steve Anderson, SVP of Administration and IR]

Thank you, and thank you, everyone, for being on our first quarter 2023 earnings call. Joining me on today's call are Jaco van der Merwe, Chief Executive Officer and Becky Weyenberg, our Chief Financial Officer. In just a moment, I'll turn the call over to Jaco to provide comments, and then Becky will summarize our financial results.

Before we begin, I'll remind you that our discussion this morning may contain forward-looking statements that relate to the future performance of the company, and these statements are intended to qualify for the Safe Harbor liability established by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act. Any such statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions.

Factors that could influence our results are highlighted in today's financial news release and others are contained in our SEC filings. As usual, we ask that you familiarize yourself with those factors.

In an effort to provide investors with additional information regarding the company's results, the company refers to various U.S. GAAP, which are Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, and non-GAAP financial measures, which management believes provides useful information to investors. These non-GAAP financial measures have no standardized meaning prescribed by U.S. GAAP and therefore, are unlikely to be comparable to the calculation of similar measures for other companies.

Management of the company does not intend these items to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for the related GAAP measures. Management of the company uses both GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures to establish internal budgets and targets and to evaluate the company's financial performance against such budgets and targets. A reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP results are included in our news release and in the appendix of our slide deck. All related earnings materials are posted on our website at www.astecindustries.com under the Investor Relations and Presentations tabs.

And now, I will turn the call over to Jaco.

[Jaco van der Merwe, CEO]

Thank you, Steve. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us.

I would like to begin my comments with the key messages summarized on Slide 4. We had a great start to 2023 as the global Astec team delivered unique solutions and outstanding service to our customers, despite facing a challenging and dynamic environment.

Demand remained favorable across our business and customers' engagement is positive. Tailwinds from highway funding, along with excitement about our new products and solutions are pushing revenues higher and keeping our backlog at elevated levels.

As a result of the strong performance of the entire Astec team, we delivered year-over-year growth in net sales of 19.5% in the first quarter and expanded adjusted EBITDA margins 360 basis points. These are great accomplishments and I am proud of the contribution from everyone across our organization.

Internally, we are elevating our performance and execution to achieve objectives as we unite with a sharpened focus on the OneASTEC operating model. As I traveled to meet employees, I'm encouraged by their embracement of our operating model to drive more consistent results, especially while facing volatile economic conditions.

To further drive the performance culture into our operations, we are implementing a number of initiatives. One major project is hitting a significant milestone this month as we go live with the Oracle Cloud ERP at one of our manufacturing sites. Becky will say more in a few minutes. But I'm excited about how this will enable process efficiency, continuous improvement and driving performance excellence.

Finally, our key messages conclude with execution against our Simplify, Focus and Grow strategy to drive sustainable shareholder value. We will say more about these key messages during the call today.

Turning to Slide 5. I would like to share with you my early observations of after nearly four months as CEO. Our team is highly engaged and energized with a clear focus on delivering results.

As I have visited global sites, the team understands the value that Astec brings to our customers and are eager to elevate their performance, so we can ingrain a culture of continuous improvement and operational excellence. In addition, our customers are equally energized and excited about our new innovative products and solutions that will enable them to meet their requirements.

I have the privilege to frequently meet with customers, including at the recent ConExpo event, and I can attest that sentiment remains positive. They have a long runway with projects to build out and upgrade infrastructure, and we are proud to partner with them in serving the Rock to Road value chain. Finally, we have an aligned and united executive leadership team that is driven and committed to achieving our long-term goals. These factors combine to give me great confidence as we progress in 2023.

The priorities for Astec in 2023, shown on the right-hand side of the slide, are the same ones that I said last quarter, executing on Simplify, Focus and Grow strategy and delivering on our commitments to employees, customers and shareholders. This will remain our focus.

Turning to Slide 6, I would like to spend a few minutes discussing our Simplify, Focus and Grow strategy while updating you on the progress we have made and our near-term priorities. As a reminder, the three pillars of our strategy are designed to create a performance culture and provide the organization with a common framework to fully unlock the value from ongoing strategic initiatives and thereby maximizing project returns.

We continue to make progress on our simplified pillar. For an example, this quarter, we completed the sale of our Tacoma facility, completing the consolidation that was announced in 2021. We are improving focus through operational excellence. For example, our ERP implementation is hitting significant milestones in May with the launch of the solution at our first site.

We continue to elevate aftermarket excellence by improving parts fill rate and driving down parts backlog, as well as introducing new technologies and capabilities that allow us to provide even greater customer service.

Overall, our Simplify, Focus and Grow framework is driving the right behaviors, and I'm convinced that it will enable us to create value for employees, customers, partners and shareholders. We were thrilled to participate in the recent ConExpo trade show and engage with customers.

Slide 7 shows some key takeaways from this event. Astec was well represented at the show. This was the first ConExpo since we launched our OneASTEC brand and we have a broad suite of products, including eight newly launched machines, an introduction of Astec Digital, Asphalt Plant Virtual Reality Station, a fully detailed scaled asphalt plant model and two fully assembled concrete plants. The positive multi-year outlook is driving customer engagement that exceeded our expectations. We were very pleased with the level of interest in our solutions.

Turning to Slide 8, I would like to provide an update on current business dynamics and how we are responding. I have already mentioned the positive customer sentiment supported by strong demand for road building equipment and materials. This has driven higher sales and supported solid backlog, giving us confidence for 2023. Additional demand support is coming as funds are beginning to flow from the federal highway bill, providing a stable and elevated source of funding for the next several years.

As we consider the challenges in meeting this demand, we are encouraged as the tight labor market started to ease. At the same time, wage inflation has normalized. These factors should help us as we stabilize our team and expand output to meet strong demand. Finally, we continue to deploy operational excellence initiatives and strategic pricing adjustments to align with input cost changes.

We show our historical backlog on Slide 9. Backlog levels, while modestly below last year's statistically elevated levels, remain very healthy and supportive of our positive outlook. Over the last two years, backlog has increased 90%. Over the same period, quarterly revenue has increased 22%. Several observations emerged from this review of our backlog trend.

First, we knew that backlog would ease from record levels as we improve output and supply chain constraints were resolved. However, they are still at historical high levels due to tremendous demand for our products.

Second, our order activity has moderated as economic stability returned following a volatile period over the last two years. Third, the current level of backlog gives us clear visibility to demand for 2023. And fourth, we still have room for improvement as we work to convert backlog to revenue. I would also note, our domestic dealer inventories remain below optimum levels, which is a source of future demand.

We have several ongoing initiatives to expand output and increase capacity, including capacity expansions at our Omagh U.K. facility. We have also improved our order fill rates for parts in support of aftermarket excellence. These combined efforts should help us more effectively meet strong demand for our products and continue to convert backlog to sales.

Turning to Slide 10, we have identified key focus areas that we believe create value for our stakeholders as part of our ESG journey. Admittedly, we are still in the early phases of this journey. However, we are in motion and have established plans to make meaningful progress. I would like to highlight two examples that demonstrate success in our ESG journey.

On Slide 11, we tell the story of one of the many remarkable women at Astec that are paving the way for women in manufacturing. Avril is the GM for our Franklin Boulevard site in Eugene. In this role, she leads a group of over 200 team members producing crushing and screening equipment within our Material Solutions portfolio. Her dedication and leadership are a true inspiration for all Astec employees, and we are honored to have her and many other women like her on our team.

On Slide 12, we show how one of our products is making a difference by turning solid waste into a useful product. One of the byproducts of road construction is green waste, vegetation that was cleared to make way for the new or widened road.

The Peterson Horizontal Grinder converts this waste that was destined for a landfill into valuable malts that can be used for water retention, erosion control, compost or overall aesthetic improvements to landscaping. This innovative product helps reduce waste and add value.

Moving to Slide 13, we introduced our Astec Digital suite of solutions to the ConExpo attendees with very positive reception. This is a very exciting initiative for us and it greatly enhances the customer experience, provides us with data that can be used to improve product performance and drive standardization across the Rock to Road value chain.

As seen on Slide 14, we are creating a digital ecosystem that our customers can leverage into competitive advantage in their business, ensuring they are using our product to their greatest advantage. Through internal development and our recent strategic acquisitions, we are connecting hardware to software by integrating telematics, connectivity, controls and equipment to create actionable intelligence.

We are creating a core competency of data analytics and plan to introduce this disruptive technology across our platform to drive transformation. I'm very excited about this area and look forward to what we will achieve to create value for our customers and a competitive advantage for Astec.

With that, I will now turn the call over to Becky to discuss our detailed financial results.

[Becky Weyenberg, CFO]

Thank you, Jaco, and good morning, everyone.

I'll begin my review of first quarter results on Slide 16. Sales were $347.9 million, up 19.5%, with growth in both major sources of revenue, especially equipment sales that increased 25.2%. Parts sales also grew, improving 4.4%. By region, we achieved balanced growth across our markets with domestic sales growth of 20% and international sales increasing 17.5%. As a reminder, U.S. represents around 80% of our consolidated sales.

Backlog decreased at the end of the first quarter, down 4.1% year-over-year and 12.3% sequentially. While off of peak levels, backlog remains elevated, up over 30% compared to our three-year average, giving us strong confidence in our 2023 expectations. By segment, Infrastructure Solutions backlog decreased 0.8% and Materials Solutions decreased 10.3%.

Domestic backlog was down 3% and international down 10.3%. As Jaco mentioned earlier, we have continued to make investments and improvements in operations to increase output. We anticipate converting more backlog to sales as these improvements are implemented and as supply chain constraints continue to ease.

Adjusted EBITDA increased 87.2% to $35.2 million, expanding adjusted EBITDA margin 360 basis points to 10.1%. This was primarily due to the net positive impact of volume, pricing and mix that outpaced inflation, higher manufacturing costs and increased operating expenses.

We continue to face lingering inefficiencies in the supply chain, creating a headwind to gross margin. Despite this, we expanded gross margins by 340 basis points to 25.6%, as we achieved higher volumes with favorable mix and further price realization. SG&A increased due to costs related to ConExpo, higher personnel costs, and incremental costs from acquired businesses.

We expect EBITDA margins to further improve as we overcome supply chain challenges and realize additional benefits from our transformation. Adjusted earnings per share more than doubled to $0.90, driven by improved operating margin as we optimize and simplify for improved long-term value creation. Our adjusted net effective tax rate for the quarter was 25.2%. For 2023, we still expect our normalized net effective tax rate to be in the 23% to 24% range.

Moving on to Slide 17, Infrastructure Solutions sales increased 16.4% to $229.9 million on strong global demand, especially for equipment and favorable net volume pricing and mix. Demand was up for both domestic and international sales increasing 14.3% and 27.9%, respectively. By category, equipment sales were up 17.3% and part sales grew 5.2%.

Segment operating adjusted EBITDA margins expanded 360 basis points to 11.9% due to net positive volume mix and pricing outpacing inflation. This was partially offset by net manufacturing inefficiencies, higher personnel costs, ConExpo trade show costs and other SG&A expenses.

Turning to Slide 18, our Material Solutions sales increased 21.6% to $113.9 million, driven by strong domestic demand and a significant increase in equipment sales. Favorable volume, pricing and mix also contributed to the increase in segment sales. Equipment sales grew 34.5% and parts were up 2%. Domestic sales grew 31.4% and international sales decreased 4.2%.

Segment operating adjusted EBITDA margins increased 40 basis points to 13.4%. This was largely due to net positive volume, mix and pricing outpacing inflation, partially offset by manufacturing inefficiencies, lower FX gains and higher ConExpo trade show costs.

I will also note that we saw a sequential margin expansion across both segments. Infrastructure Solutions improved EBITDA margins 220 basis points and Materials Solutions grew EBITDA margins 460 basis points, driven largely by the same factors that drove the year-over-year expansion.

On Slide 19, we highlight the key drivers of our year-over-year adjusted EBITDA bridge. EBITDA improved 87.2% to $35.2 million, which caused EBITDA margin to expand 360 basis points to 10.1%. The positive contribution from volume, pricing and mix more than offset the impact from inflation. We also achieved positive contributions from acquisitions.

Supply chain disruptions are still having a lingering effect on manufacturing efficiencies and SG&A was slightly higher due to higher personnel costs and expenses related to ConExpo event. Looking ahead, we continue to expect further benefit from price realization and the implementation of our transformation strategy to drive increased EBITDA to deliver on our long-term targets.

Turning to Slide 20, our cash position decreased to $39.6 million as we secured inventory to meet demand. CapEx was slightly lower than last year and we received $20 million for the final sale of our previously closed Tacoma facility. With ample liquidity and low debt, our balance sheet remains solid and we expect our cash position to grow as we manage working capital and resolve supply chain disruptions.

We have the financial strength to withstand a variety of economic situations as well as support investment plans and return cash to shareholders. Our current net leverage ratio is low, which we think is prudent given elevated inflation, rising interest rates and broader macro uncertainty. Over the long-run, our target leverage range over the cycle is between 1.5 times to 2.5 times.

Turning to Slide 21, we maintain a disciplined capital deployment framework, balancing investments in growth with returning cash to shareholders. We spent $8 million on CapEx in the first quarter to improve operational efficiencies and advance our long-term strategy and maintained our commitment to return cash to shareholders with our quarterly dividend.

Our Oracle transformation is summarized on Slide 22. This month, we went live with our first facility and corporate. It is still early days, and while there are always some elements that need to be fine-tuned after the system is activated, I'm very pleased with the launch. We expect to see benefits from this implementation in the second half of this year, with additional incremental improvements to follow as we optimize the system, fully integrate it into our workflows, and begin to go live at other sites in 2024.

I will note that while we work through the initial phases of the launch, we do anticipate some production disruption in our second quarter. Our operations teams are prepared for this and are ready to mitigate any temporary impact on customer deliveries. I'm happy to report that the program today is on schedule, on cost and tracking well above our quality metrics.

I will now turn it back over to Jaco for his closing comments.

[Jaco van der Merwe, CEO]

Thank you, Becky.

Turning to Slide 23. I would like to remind you of our key investment highlights. We have built a leadership position within attractive niche markets. These markets are benefiting from long-term secular trends, including population growth, urbanization and aging infrastructure. It gives us confidence in our outlook.

These leadership positions have been built by delivering products and services with a reputation for innovation, enhanced by the integrated Astec Digital platform. This has helped us grow our installed base, setting up an environment for our aftermarket excellence initiative to grow this revenue stream that is more stable and higher quality.

As revenue and earnings improve, we further strengthened our balance sheet to provide the liquidity needed to fund our growth initiatives. These actions combine to further our Simplify, Focus and Grow strategic evolution, driving sustainable profitable growth as we strive to achieve our long-term goals shown on Slide 24.

In closing, we are performing well and optimistic about 2023. We are making progress on our transformation as we drive a culture of performance through execution. I am confident that our team is capable of meeting these expectations and excited about what we can achieve together.

With that, operator, we are now ready to open the call for questions.

[Operator]

Thank you. [Operator Instructions] We'll go first to Mig Dobre at Baird.

[MigDobre]

Good morning everyone. Thank you for taking the question.

[Jaco van der Merwe, CEO]

Good morning, Mig.

[Becky Weyenberg, CFO]

Good morning, Mig.

[MigDobre]

I guess, I'm curious to get a little more context from you guys in terms of where you see demand. I appreciate the fact that your shipments in the quarter to customers were good, increased. But at the same time, your order intake declined significantly both sequentially and year-over-year. So, in terms of where demand currently lies as it manifests itself through orders; something seems, at least to me, quite a bit different than what we've had, call it nine to 12 months ago. So perhaps you can comment on that to kind of get us started here.

[Jaco van der Merwe, CEO]

Yes Mig, it's Jaco here. And maybe I can take that to start. I think you've heard from other companies in the market as well. There is a very positive environment supported by the long-term infrastructure bill. Over the last couple of months, I've had a good fortunes to meet many of our customers. And actually, yesterday, I had a meeting with all our top dealers and expectations from them is still strong.

All our customers have very strong backlog and a lot of work. And we expect that trend to continue as the market gets ready to fulfill order, all the work that's there in the market. Obviously, as lead times come down, we do expect the moderation in backlog, and we are also very focused on driving backlog down, especially on parts. For us, that's really important that our customers have the necessary parts to support their operations, and we are really focused around that.

The other thing that I see that will support strong order intake in the future at ConExpo, as you saw, we have multiple new products, and our customers are very excited about those. And as soon as we start launching those products, we'll see strong demand continue for these new products. But, once again, it's important to realize and also look at our backlog and see where it lies in comparison with our historical averages.

[MigDobre]

Well, I guess, I appreciate your comment on backlog. But look, I mean, there's basically two ways in which backlog comes down. You can increase your production, which you've done and you're talking about doing more of that. The other way the backlog comes down is by orders coming down materially. And this is exactly what we've seen last quarter, we're seeing it again this quarter. And orders are typically an indication of where true end market demand lies right now. Is there something that is somehow skewing orders currently that you're aware of or that we need to be aware of?

[Jaco van der Merwe, CEO]

No. I mean, I'm not aware of any systemic issues or problems. And, once again, as I mentioned earlier, I feel that our customer base is very optimistic about the future, the amount of work that they have. As we are improving our capacity and driving lead times down, obviously, our customers are gaining more confidence in our ability to supply with shorter lead times. So from my side, no.

[MigDobre]

So, the decline in orders could have something to do with your improving lead times and maybe customer orders normalizing as it relates to that. I guess, I'm curious, as you look at the order intake that you have had over the past couple of years, which has resulted in this sizable backlog build. Is it possible that the demand associated with the infrastructure bill and all the projects that I think all of us have been anticipated for some time has actually been pulled forward, and this is sort of what creates this apparent hangover there that we're witnessing right now?

[Jaco van der Merwe, CEO]

Yes. I mean, if you look at the significant slope of order intake here in the last year or two, obviously there were some buying from the market due to the uncertainty in supply chain. And as demand normalize, I think the backlog will normalize. One thing that came out very clear yesterday in the discussion with our dealers, our dealer inventory is still very low.

And especially if you look at the mobile road construction equipment, lead times are well into next year. And the dealers -- the feedback we got from them is that they see a strong remainder of 2023 and that they expect 2024 to continue at least at the same level as this year. So I think we're just seeing a moderation with supply chain and lead times stabilizing.

[MigDobre]

Final question for me, how are you sort of thinking about managing capacity here? You're increasing this capacity in the near term, but clearly, the backlog is coming down. And as we already discussed, the orders have softened considerably. Do you sort of run the risk of having to curtail production into 2024, and how much flexibility you have to do that?

[Jaco van der Merwe, CEO]

Yes. No, good question. And we are absolutely reviewing our capacity versus demand, Mig. The good thing is here over the last year or two, we've done a great job implementing structured sales and operations planning process, and that has given us very good visibility on where do we have a shortage of capacity and where we potentially have excess capacity and the teams are managing that.

We have multiple levers that we can pull. Under normal circumstances, we run 20%, 25% over time in our facilities. So demand will have to pull back quite a bit before significant structural changes as needed. But our sales and operations process have really helped us to give us good visibility.

The other thing also to remember is we've done some significant prior footprint rationalizations and those changes will come in and support if the market does pull back. So, I feel like that the teams have good visibility and we already have good plans in place if there's any moderation taking place.

[MigDobre]

Great, thank you.

[Operator]

We'll move next to Steve Ferazani at Sidoti.

[Steve Ferazani, Sidoti]

Good morning everyone. Thanks for the detail on the call. I did want to ask about cash flow. Given the amount of backlog conversion this quarter, I would have expected there would have been completion of a lot of WIP and that would have brought down the inventory, but it actually grew again. Can you give us a sense of what's coming through right now? And is that not the case that you're completing a lot of WIP right now?

[Becky Weyenberg, CFO]

Yes, good morning, Steve. I can take that. We have several uses of cash. But certainly, on the inventory, we did see inventory, it did not come down as much as the backlog did, and it's largely isolated to a few locations, one of them being the location that we're also going live with our SFG program.

So, they still have some WIP in play, but we had to freeze the system for cutover and now they're happy to report they're producing again. So we did see it come down where we expected it to come down, and then we had pockets where it went up. And like I said, largely due to the one site going live with Oracle.

[Jaco van der Merwe, CEO]

One other comment there -- sorry, Steve, just to support what Becky said there. Also remember that sales doesn't always take place in the quarter that we produce equipment, especially for large asphalt plant and concrete plants. So there's always work for future quarters in the system as well.

And then, just the last comment on that, the same as it takes a while to ramp up the whole supply chain for higher sales, if backlog comes down, you know bringing that inventory down will take a quarter or two. Our teams are really focused on that because we understand that that's potentially hazardous for us. But right now, we have really good visibility on it and the teams, I feel, have pretty good control over it.

[Steve Ferazani, Sidoti]

So you mentioned the Oracle implementation. Any concerns as you move forward with this, given how much volume theoretically with supply chain constraints coming down that you want to get out the door over the next couple of quarters? Any thoughts on temporarily delaying further implementation this year?

[Becky Weyenberg, CFO]

No, we're staying the course. Everything is going quite well. We don't have any other rollouts planned for this year. We've already done quite a bit this year. And in the back half of the year, we'll finish working on the design for our engineer to order sites. And then the next sites will go live in February of 2024. There'll be two sites. So it will keep going at a pretty good cadence over the next two years; '24 and '25.

[Jaco van der Merwe, CEO]

Yes. And Steve, I've been involved in many ERP implementations before and having the ability to ship parts on day one was a huge milestone for the team. And so we did that manufacturing ran as normal, which is great. So, now we are entering day three and the statistics of shipments and activity is just growing. So, I will say this was a great win for the Astec team and something like in the ERP implementation, this is a big success for the team so far.

[Steve Ferazani, Sidoti]

Great, thanks of that. In terms of the EBITDA bridge, the Q1 EBITDA bridge, I'm surprised that's still negative from manufacturing efficiencies. Should we see that turning positive? And what was the reason for the negative this quarter given you obviously did get a lot more volume out the door?

[Jaco van der Merwe, CEO]

Yes. Steve, it's Jaco here. I can take that one. Actually, the description there is maybe a little bit misleading. Most of that inefficiency there was related to warranty cost, inventory variances and some service variances. Actually, if you look at our manufacturing absorption, we were very close to breakeven. So, right now, I think we have really balanced our labor with the number of hours that we put out.

So, I'm - I mean, that number in detail and those are not related to manufacturing as such. Of course, there's still some inefficiencies in the system. We still have supply chain constraints, especially on the mobile road construction equipment. So, I think that number will just continue to improve.

[Steve Ferazani, Sidoti]

Perfect, great. Thanks Jaco. Thanks Becky.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] We'll go next to Brian Sponheimer at Gabelli Funds.

[Brian Sponheimer, Gabelli Funds]

Hi good morning Jaco, Becky and Steve, how are you?

[Jaco van der Merwe, CEO]

Good morning. Good.

[Brian Sponheimer, Gabelli Funds]

You mentioned in the release and in your prepared comments that you're starting to see some of the infrastructure might flow through, can you maybe give some examples as to where you're seeing that and maybe just some evidence that this spigot has actually started?

[Jaco van der Merwe, CEO]

Yes, absolutely. I mean, actually as I said, I spoke to our dealers yesterday and multiple of our sales leaders are actually here in Chattanooga this week. And it's all over, some significant lettings coming out of Texas, Arkansas have had programs that's stronger than what they've ever seen, Georgia, Tennessee, I mean, it's really all over. And I think most of our customers have seen strong backlog and the recent lettings has been very strong. So I will say it's in most states, to be honest.

[Brian Sponheimer, Gabelli Funds]

Okay. And you mentioned price as a factor for some of the positive contribution in the quarter. What are we looking for as far as carryover pricing into this year? And what have you done in the four months as CEO that maybe has changed some of the way that you go to market from a price perspective?

[Jaco van der Merwe, CEO]

Yes a good question. For me, always the first thing to focus on is, as you know, we need to get value for the product that we sell. And our teams are very focused on that, to get the right price for our products. We are very in tune with any price changes on components, and we are now updating pricing, especially on parts on a real-time basis. So, as soon as price increases came through from suppliers, we are adjusting those. So, much more reactive than what we were in the past.

And then, of course, with long lead times, we have a lot of pricing in our backlog, and we feel pretty good about the pricing that we actually have in the backlog. And then the last thing is, obviously, with lead time going into 2024, we've been very proactive and have already started to adjust pricing on items that we know we will deliver into 2024.

On pricing, there's always smaller competitors that reacts quickly. If prices change on the raw material, the teams are keeping a very close eye on that. And I think with the processes that we've put in place here in the last two years, we actually have ability to react very quickly, both up and down when needed.

[Brian Sponheimer, Gabelli Funds]

Okay, I appreciate that. Thank you very much and best of luck for the rest of the year.

[Jaco van der Merwe, CEO]

Thank you.

[Operator]

We'll take our next question from Larry De Maria at William Blair.

[Larry De Maria, William Blair]

Hi, good morning and thank you. Just trying to understand some of the messaging on sales and orders, obviously, we're around this 350 level in sales here couple of quarters. Is this high as high as we can go in this environment and given where the backlog is and capacity, et cetera supply chain? In other words, should we -- is that kind of a run rate for the rest of the year? Could we go higher from there or is there going to be more seasonality? Can you just kind of help us think about the cadence and where we can go from here given that we've been at that level couple of quarters now?

[Jaco van der Merwe, CEO]

Yes. So, if you look historically, typically, Q1 is one with stronger sales as a lot of our customers want to leverage the winter months, so that they can be operational during the quarter. So obviously Q1 is definitely one of our stronger quarters. From a capacity point of view, with operational excellence activity implemented and investments, I think we can go higher in terms of capacity -- from sales, from a capacity point of view. So we've definitely we have those levers to pull if demands pop higher than what we had in the last year or two. But I will say Q1 stronger quarter in the year and then typically Q4 a pretty strong quarter for us.

[Larry De Maria, William Blair]

Okay. So still some normal seasonality, but obviously, we're turning out the year on a stronger note. Maybe we could do the same thing around either gross margins or EBITDA margins, obviously nice work, and you noted you're getting good pricing in the backlog. So, how do we think about margins as we progress through the year or two? Are we at a structurally higher level now in 2023 or follow same seasonal patterns but at higher levels or how do we think about this because, obviously, they've been volatile over time?

[Jaco van der Merwe, CEO]

No, I think before we gave that target range of the 24% to 25% range, and we feel pretty comfortable that in those ranges this year. Obviously, in Q1 is a very strong part quarter for us. So that's typically the highest quarter of the year. And with the quality of earnings for parts that contributed to high margins for Q1.

[Larry De Maria, William Blair]

So, I'm sorry, you broke up, you weren't saying 24% to 25% for this year, right or were you?

[Jaco van der Merwe, CEO]

Yes. So I mean we said ranges for margins of 24% to 25%, we believe that we will be within those ranges.

[Larry De Maria, William Blair]

Okay.

[Becky Weyenberg, CFO]

On the full year.

[Jaco van der Merwe, CEO]

Yes.

[Larry De Maria, William Blair]

Yes.

[Steve Anderson, SVP of Administration and IR]

Larry, you're breaking up. Do you have any other questions?

[Larry De Maria, William Blair]

Good luck.

[Jaco van der Merwe, CEO]

Thank you. Thanks Larry.

[Becky Weyenberg, CFO]

Thanks Larry.

[Operator]

And there are no further questions in the queue at this time. I would like to hand the call back to Steve Anderson for closing remarks.

[Steve Anderson, SVP of Administration and IR]

All right. Thank you, Audrey. We appreciate your participation on the conference call today. Thank you for your interest in Astec. As our news release indicates, today's conference call has been recorded. A replay of this conference call will be available through May 17, 2023. An archived webcast will be available for 90 days.

The transcript will be available under the Investor Relations section of the Astec Industries website within the next seven days. This information is contained in the news release distributed earlier this morning. This concludes our call, but I'm happy to connect if any of you have additional questions. Thank you all.