實耐寶 (SNA) 2025 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Good morning, and welcome to the Snap-on Inc. Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2025 Results Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) Please note, this event is being recorded.

I would now like to turn the conference over to Sara Verbsky, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Drew, and good morning, everyone. We appreciate you joining us today as we review Snap-on's fourth quarter and full year results, which are detailed in our press release issued earlier this morning. We have on the call Nick Pinchuk, Snap-on's Chief Executive Officer; and Aldo Pagliari, Snap-on's Chief Financial Officer. Nick will kick off our call this morning with his perspective on our performance. Aldo will then provide a more detailed review of our financial results.

After Nick provides some closing thoughts, we'll take your questions.

As usual, we've provided slides to supplement our discussion. These slides can be accessed under the Downloads tab in the webcast viewer as well as on our website, snapon.com, under the Investors section. These slides will be archived on our website along with a transcript of today's call.

Any statements made during this call relative to management's expectations, estimates or beliefs or that otherwise discuss management's or the company's outlook, plans or projections are forward-looking statements, and actual results may differ materially from those made in such statements. Additional information and the factors that could cause our results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements are contained in our SEC filings.

Finally, this presentation includes non-GAAP measures of financial performance, which are not meant to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for their GAAP counterparts. Additional information regarding these measures is included in our earnings release issued today, which can be found on our website.

With that said, I'd now like to turn the call over to Nick Pinchuk. Nick?

Thanks, Sara. Good morning, everybody. Well, I'll start by saying these times are something. Things like every day brings a new twist of considerable significance. Fluctuating tariffs with a big swing, unprecedented domestic and international events that dominate the news, prolonged government shutdowns.

We just avoided another one. The hits just keep on coming.

But as we speak about the period, I believe you'll see that in the middle of it all, Snap-on shines through with strength. I'm going to tell you about that as we review the quarter. It's a story of resilient markets, sales progress, profitability and continuing investments that further fortify our advantages in product and brand and people. And so as I cover the highlights in the last three months, I'll give you my perspective on the performance, on the markets and on the progress we've made. Then Aldo will move into a more detailed review of the financials.

Our fourth quarter was (inaudible). We believe it emphatically serves a testimony that our balanced approach, growth and improvement is effective enough. Our advantages are powerful enough, and our team is experienced, capable and committed enough to perform even in the most challenging environment. So here are the numbers.

In the fourth quarter, sales were $1.239 billion, up 2.8% from last year as reported, including a 1.4% organic increase and $15.6 million favorable foreign currency, positive growth against the winner. And our Opco operating income OI for the quarter was of $265.2 million was equal to last year's. And the OI margin for the period was 21.5%, 60 basis points short of last year. The impact of unfavorable currency, combined with additional investments in brand building and product development.

For financial services, OI of $74.4 million was up $7.7 million or 11.5% from last year to a large part to the 53 week in the 2025 fiscal calendar being uniquely beneficial to the credit company. And when combined with Opco, the overall earnings for the corporation of $339.6 million was up 2.3% versus '24, and total margin was 25.3%.

Our overall quarterly EPS, it reached $4.94, up $0.12 from the $4.82 recorded last year. The quarter shows the same resilience demonstrated over the years as we've paid dividends every quarter since 1939 without a single interruption or reduction. In fact, in November, it was with clear belief in our future that we raised our dividend by 14%, the 16th straight year of increase. It was another strong and tangible estimate to Snap-on's consistency right through a variety of environments. All those are the numbers.

Now to the markets. We believe the automotive repair remains very favorable, and that's validated by the average age of the car park, now at 12.8 years, and it's continuing to rise. By the growing number -- by the growing complexity of new platforms driving more difficult and time-consuming repairs and by the ongoing climb in household spending on vehicle repair is up again.

And the vehicles and fixers all over are cashing in on the surge, tech wages are up again, extending a fairly positive trend. Hours worked in the bays are also on the rise. We believe technicians are financially stronger than ever, and their prospects just keep getting better. It's not mistakable. There's a growing demand for capable vehicle repair. Shop owners tell us all the time.

They need more tests. And we believe the need to continue for -- and we believe this need will continue for several years. In fact, that's a good piece, I think. A recent article in The Economist, Ditch textbooks and leave how -- and learn how to use a wrench to AI-proof your job. That piece emphasized the considerable need for more technicians and the solid security provided by the profession.

And it cites vehicle repair as one of the most AI proof of jobs. Work is pretty challenging, both physically and mentally. Each repair is different, with variations and conditions that never seem to be the same. And as such, a mechanic needs a mastery of a massive repertoire of procedures, must summon the logic to troubleshoot puzzling failures and must be able to navigate intricate mechanical setups with precision. It's a job that's getting more complex every day. The techs need help in keeping up, and Snap-on's well -- very well positioned to do just that.

Now a related but different segment, shop owners and managers are also adapting, continuing to invest in the advanced equipment and specialty tools required to attend the latest vehicles. This is where repair systems information or the RS&I group resides.

It's a target-rich environment. It's a target-rich environment for our capable undercar and collision equipment, and it's a great and growing opportunity for our expanding array of software and data products. It's an arena where Snap-on is well positioned with our extensive line of proprietary and comprehensive databases, billions of data points.

Now leveraged with large language models, language machine learning programs that search the exhaustive and complex information, matching the promise signature with just the right repair procedure in a split second, greatly expediting the vehicle fix, increasing shop productivity and getting the vehicle back on the road faster than ever.

Again, this quarter, I had the opportunity to meet with our -- with franchisees from coast to coast. They're a great barometer. They were all positive about the new -- about the now and very enthusiastic about their futures. Sure, they still encounter the ongoing hesitation of techs have toward long-term payback purchases. But at the same time, they're energized by the (inaudible) of the Tools Group execution, pivoting the faster payback items, rolling out a continuous stream of innovative offerings that are making difficult and critical repair work faster and much easier.

And now in the current environment, so storage remains the most impacted category, but we do see demand for smaller boxes and our large range of accessories are starting to grow. In fact, the fourth quarter showed kind of some significant improvement in originations. They were almost flat in the quarter. It's a clear game that bodes well for the future. It appears that our pivot is working.

So despite the challenges, automotive repair remains robust, and we believe we're well positioned to capitalize.

Now let's turn to critical industries, where commercial and industrial or C&I group operates with a focus on taking Snap-on out of the garage, the places where work is very critical, justifying a Snap-on level product. Complex tasks performed in harsh and ruling environments, from oilfields to subsea floors, the clean rooms for chip manufacturing and to tightly control base for rocket manufacturing.

This arena relies on our extensive catalog of products that provide precision, durability, reliability and repeatability, all characteristics required to get the job done where the tasks are essential and critical. We believe we have a decisive advantage in these critical areas. And we keep investing to make it even stronger, and the fourth quarter was no exception.

This is also in the market where -- with the largest global footprint for us. And that creates challenges in navigating the international headwinds like government protocols, varying economies and currency fluctuations. And during the quarter, Europe saw the continuing impact of the Ukrainian war. And Asia was marked by the general loss of confidence in the Chinese economy and the impact of the -- and the impact of the evolving U.S. tariff regime, changes all the time.

More than any group, C&I encounters these obstacles from country to country, and it does cause some adversities across the group. But we're confident we have the strengths to overcome the variation and keep progressing, making the most of the abundant opportunities in this critical center.

So that's an overview of our markets. Resistance against turbulence filled with opportunities. And we're well -- I should say resilience and resistance against the turbulence, and it's filled with opportunities. And we're well positioned to leverage the possibilities, progressing down our runways for growth, efforts that are fortified by our Snap-on [four,five] processes, safety, quality, customer connection, innovation and rapid continuous improvement, or RCI, the core activities that underpin our performance, enabling it to hold vast despite the difficult headwinds of these days.

Now for the operating groups. Let's start with C&I. Fourth quarter sales of $398.1 million for the group were up $18.9 million or 5%, with our organic gain of $2.8 million and $7.9 million of favorable foreign currency translation. Our power dual division (inaudible) the way with that growth with double-digit gains, moving forward on the market enthusiasm for our new innovative power solutions that make work much easier. And especially the torque business was also up, driven by the ever-growing need for precision instruments and in the critical industries come back.

Our industrial operations overcame the impact of the prolonged U.S. government shutdown to kind of cut off things for a while, things were kind of slow for a while. They overcame that wielding. It's increasingly powerful custom [kitting] operations like never before to come roaring down the stretch, registering a positive volume and catching up. I mean you should have seen this team, seeing them working on catching up. It was a [wowza].

OI for C&I was $60.6 million and included a benefit of $4.5 million related to the refinement of our footprint and compared -- and then compared with the $63.5 million registered last year. The OI margin was 15.2% versus the 16.7% in 2024, primarily due to material cost increase and stronger sales in some of the group's lower-margin businesses.

As I said, the sales growth was fueled by new innovative power tools engineered by our team in Murphy, North Carolina and (inaudible), Wisconsin in the back half of the quarter.

For example, in the back half of the quarter, we launched our new Nano Axcess cordless lineup. I mean this baby is groundbreaking. Developed from insights gained from customer connections right in the shops at the point of work. The Nano is a compact power tool. And when I say compact, I mean small enough to fit right in the palm of your hand, and it can be carried everywhere in a small pocket to be always on hand when the need arises.

The big advantage is as techs change positions across the shop or venture out into the yard. The unit has an internal -- also has an internal ampere hour battery that drives over 600 fasteners, 600 fasteners on a single charge. You see from our customer connections, we know that most inspections and general repairs are low torque applications like removing panels, clams and fasteners under the dash and in crowded compartment.

For these common tasks that Nano has the power for rapid removal, the control to avoid stripping the fastener and has the right size to fit where no other power tool can go. It's a real time saver and a fast payback item, and it's right on target for the environment. The initial release featured two models that are one straight and one 90-degree pistol driver.

Both -- and both units set new records for new power tool rollouts. Pretty strong.

Also in the quarter, our industry factor in California launched our new ControlTech+ torque wrench. It's a unit that has high precision needed for critical industries and performs a great liability in the harsh conditions that are often encountered outside the garage. It's robust oil steel construction, it's durable, perfect for heavy-duty use. And the design includes a large LED display that's visible in bright sunlight or in dark work areas, anywhere an industrial tech applies their trade.

And that unit is intrinsic -- and the unit is intrinsically safe, meaning it's certified to work in flammable areas. It's an important feature for critical applications. And the internal rechargeable battery ensures the device is always powered up and ready for work, a new ControlTech+, accurate, durable, easier to use and safe, taking Snap-on out of the garage and helping deliver the C&I quarter. Well, that's C&I, sales up, a powerful come back, wielding our critical custom kit capacity, mighty might power tools and precision torque, rising -- all rising to new levels.

Now on to the Tools Group. Quarterly sales of $505 million -- quarterly sales were -- of $505 million were down -- down from the -- were $505 million, down from the $506.6 million of last year. But the OI was $107.3 million, up from $106.9 million last year. And the OI margin was 21.2%, rising 10 basis points. The fluctuating tariffs, the prolonged shutdown and the constant parade of big bang actions and ideas coming out of Washington has stope technician uncertainty and reinforced reluctance toward longer payback items.

But the Tools Group -- but the Tools Group's ongoing pivot has authored a series of shorter payback items that are bringing high value and strengthen margins for the shop. And that positive is evidenced by the group's gross margins of 46.1%, a gain of 150 basis points over last year despite the flat volume, boom shakalaka. This is an eyepopper.

And at the same time, even in a turbulence, we remain committed towards investing. Even in a turbulence, we remain committed towards investing in the van network, maintaining our advantage in product and brand and in people. So the quarter in the Tools Group -- so in the quarter, spending on operating expenses rose 140 basis points, helping to ensure that the group will be at full strength when the uncertainty thaws.

But the Snap-on core, the core of our business here is our powerful product line. Now over 85,000 strong across the corporation over 40,000 just in the Tools Group. And the period saw a number of great new examples in the Tools Group. During the quarter, our Milwaukee, Wisconsin facility released a new line of impact flex sockets. Customer connection identified a range of tests where removing components to access the fix was burning a lot of tech time.

Armed with that insight, our engineers have designed the new 307 RIP LMS, a seven-piece impact socket set featuring extra long reduced diameter shafts and low-profile exits. This design enables easy access to deeply recess fasteners and it provides a clearance around, blocking obstruction, all without removing additional parts. It's an ideal tool for speeding up routine path like brake caliber removals, catalytic converter replacements and extracting exhaust (inaudible).

Our new long (inaudible) impact set is a winner. It increases productivity, creates quick paybacks, and the technicians have noticed, making this design on another hit product, $1 million hit product.

Also rolling out in the Algona, Iowa plant, a new true storage configuration, the KPL 1021 54-inch single bank master series roll clip cab, but with the unique features that all seven drawers span the full width of the box. And those drawers are equipped with heavy-duty dual ball bearing slides. The unit has the space and the strength to handle additional storage without -- within a compact footprint. 9,300 square inches to be exact. Now space and strength define a storage utility.

And the new unit has plenty of space for our full organizing trades at (inaudible) and a low capacity of nearly 3.5 tons big. It's an offering with powerful capabilities at a midrange price point and it's just the storage product for this environment. And as you might expect, it was a great success. Some of what you see in the originations come from this. Well, that's the Tools Group.

Matching technician preferences, leveraging customer connections, investing in our strengths all in a turbulence.

Now for RS&I. Sales in the quarter were $467.8 million, up $11.2 million compared to 2022 and including our annex sales gain of $4.8 million. The group's fifth consecutive quarter of growth against the turbulence. Higher volume with vehicle OEMs and dealerships and games with this information databases to independent garages led the way, more than offsetting lower sales and big ticket diagnostic units.

RS&I operating earnings for the quarter were $117.7 million, and the operating margin was a strong 25.2%. But it was down 140 basis points from the 26.6% recorded last year. That reduction represents very robust investment in software development and brand building.

Similar to the Tools Group, RS&I gross margins were strong, 46.9%, about equal to last year despite cost increases. And just like tools, the group invested to build this advantage in both hardware and software, helping the -- helping -- driving the operating expenses 130 basis points over last year.

That's the numbers. But we believe the spending will be well worth, and we'll make our advantages even stronger going forward.

You see growing vehicle complexity paired with an aging car park makes understanding the different vehicle setups very difficult, especially with the variations of creature comforts and safety equipment found in modern vehicles. And this is where RSI itself, converting billions of data points within microseconds and delivering it in the hands of the tech, enabling them to diagnose the problem and execute the fix quickly. That's already happened.

In the quarter, the group believes the all-new MT, the Snap-on MT2600 diagnostic platform, offering a quick payback unit positioned as a powerful entry-level device for the diagnostic -- or the automotive diagnostic arena. The new unit is capable of communicating with 50 different OEMs from around the globe, on models dating back to 1983. In other words, it handles a wide range of vehicles. And it is fast, with live data graphs, functional tests and the capability to reset service and check engine lines. Plug into this vehicle's diagnostic -- into a vehicle's diagnostic port and press go.

It's ready to go. No time wasted loading software. And it automatically identifies the vehicle's specific information. Just because the same -- just because it's the same make and model doesn't mean the vehicle is the same in the repair world. Models are not the same in the repair world. One could have been ordered with options like parking assist and the other with air-ride suspension.

But there's -- but there's no need to look it up. Now the MT2600 knows the unique differences instantly without any additional input, and it's a real-time saver, it's a productivity advancer, and it's a pay raiser for entry level techs.

The Snap-on MT2600, a powerful feature set and a price to line to match current technician preferences, and it was a hit with franchisees and with the customers alike. So that's RS&I. Trends remain robust, aging car park, vehicle technology continuing to advance, making repairs complex, abundant opportunities for growth. And Snap-on is the position in the product line to take advantage, and we're investing to extend that lead. That's our fourth quarter performance in the midst of turbulence.

C&I sales up, critical industries impeded by the shutdown, but roaring back to report a positive, substantial gains with new power tools and precision torque products. The Tools Group, about flat, attenuated by tech uncertainty by growing gross margins, up 150 basis points without of volume booth. Continuing investments in products and brands and its people.

RS&I, a fifth straight quarter of growth, gains with OEMs and independent shops, strengthening its proprietary database and its software. And the overall business, sales up 2.8% as reported, 1.4% organically, and an EPS of $4.94, up again over last year. Progress and investments in a difficult market. It was an encouraging quarter.

Now I'll turn the call over to Aldo.

Thanks, Nick. Our consolidated operating results for the fourth quarter are summarized on Slide 6. Net sales of $1,231.9 million in the quarter represented increased 2.8% to 2024 levels, reflecting a 1.4% organic sales gain and $15.6 million of favorable foreign currency translation.

Sales in our commercial and industrial sector or the C&I group increased year-over-year, led by strong performances, with critical industry customers and robust sales by our power tools operations. In our automotive repair market, sales gains with repair shop owners and managers were somewhat tempered by slightly lower activity through our franchise [Amgen].

Consolidated gross margin of 49.2% compared to 49.7% in the fourth quarter last year. The decline of 50 basis points primarily reflect a higher material and other costs as well as higher sales and lower gross margin businesses within the C&I group. These headwinds were partially offset by benefits from the company's RCI initiatives.

And while Snap-on is relatively advantaged in the current tariff environment, generally manufacturing products in the markets where they're sold, our costs can be affected by trade policies.

Operating expenses as a percentage of net sales of 27.7% compared to 27.6% in 2024. Operating earnings before financial services of $265.2 million in the quarter were unchanged from last year. As a percentage of net sales, operating margin before financial services of 21.5% compared to the 22.1% reported in 2024.

As you may know, Snap-on operates on a fiscal calendar which results in an additional week being added to our fiscal year every five years to six years. Accordingly, the 2025 fiscal year contains 53 weeks of operating results, with the extra week relative to the prior year occurring in the fourth quarter.

While the impact of this additional week was not material to Snap-on's consolidated fourth quarter total revenues and net earnings, our financial services segment did earn an additional full week of interest income from its financing portfolio. At the consolidated level, the net earnings benefit from the additional week of financial services interest income was largely offset by a corresponding additional week of fixed expenses, primarily personnel-related costs.

With that said, financial services' revenue of $108.0 million in the fourth quarter, including $7.4 million of revenue resulting from the extra week of interest income compared to $100.5 million last year, while operating earnings of $74.4 million compared to $66.7 million in 2024. Consolidated operating earnings of $339.6 million compared to $331.9 million last year. As a percentage of revenues, the operating earnings margin of 25.3% compared to 25.5% in 2024.

Our fourth quarter effective income tax rate was 22.3% in 2025 and 22.5% in 2024. Net earnings of $260.7 million or $4.94 per diluted share compared to $258.1 million or $4.82 per diluted share in 2024.

Now let's turn to our segment results for the quarter. Starting with the C&I Group on Slide 7. Sales of $398.1 million rose $18.9 million compared to 2024 levels, reflecting a 2.8% organic sales increase and $7.9 million of favorable foreign currency translation.

The organic gain includes a mid-single-digit increase in activity with customers in critical industries, a double-digit rise in power tools and a mid-single-digit improvement in specialty torque. These gains were partially offset by lower sales to the United States markets by the Asia Pacific business.

Overall, the organic sales gain largely reflects successful new product launches from our power tools operation and continued improving demand from our critical industry customers, including those in the United States and International Aviation, heavy-duty and technical education.

Despite delays associated with the government shutdown in October and November, sales into military and defense applications rebounded and were down only slightly for the quarter versus last year, with activity increasing as we exited the fourth quarter.

Gross margin of 38.6% compared to 41% in 2024. This decline was primarily due to higher material and other cost, increased sales in lower gross margin businesses and 30 basis points of unfavorable foreign currency effects, partially offset by savings from RCI initiatives.

During the fourth quarter, the C&I group refined its footprint and go-to-market strategy, resulting in a net benefit to operating expenses of $4.5 million. As detailed on Slide 7, these actions included a net gain on the sale of a building that was partially offset by cost to retire certain trademarks and by restructuring charges. As such, operating expenses as a percentage of sales of 23.4% in the quarter, including the net benefit compared to 24.3% last year. Operating earnings for the C&I group of $60.6 million compared to $63.5 million in 2024 and the operating margin of 15.2% compared to 16.7% last year.

Now turning to Slide 8. Sales in the Snap-on Tools Group of $505 million compared to $506.6 million last year, reflecting a [0.07%] organic sales decline, largely offset by $1.8 million of favorable foreign currency translation. The organic decrease reflects a low single-digit decline in the United States, partially offset by a high single-digit gain in the segment's international operations.

During the quarter, we believe our ongoing pivot to featuring the benefits of shorter payback items continued to mitigate the persistent uncertainty of technician customers in the current environment. Gross margin improved 150 basis points to 46.1% in the quarter from 44.6% last year, mostly due to a year-over-year shift in product mix, including higher sales of new products and savings from the segment's RCI initiatives.

Operating expenses as a percentage of sales of 24.9% compared to 23.5% in 2024, largely reflecting increased brand building and other costs. Operating earnings for the Snap-on Tools Group of $107.3 million compared to $106.9 million in 2024. The operating margin of 21.2% improved 10 basis points from last year.

Turning to the RS&I Group shown on Slide 9. Sales of $467.8 million compared to $456.6 million a year ago, reflecting a 1% organic sales increase and $6.4 million of favorable foreign currency translation. The organic improvement includes low single-digit gains in activity with OEM dealerships and in sales of diagnostics and repair information products to independent repair shop owners and managers.

While our undercar equipment sales were flat with last year, the business experienced improving activity in all of our product lines outside of collision repair, which continue to be down year-over-year. Gross margin for the RS&I group of 46.9% compared to 47% last year, and savings from RCI nearly offset the effects of tariffs and higher material costs.

Operating expenses as a percentage of sales of 21.7% compared to 20.4% in 2024, largely reflecting increased activity in higher expense businesses and a rise in other costs. Operating earnings of $117.7 million compared to $121.4 million last year. The operating margin of 25.2% compared to 26.6% (inaudible) 2024.

Now turning to Slide 10. Revenue from financial services of $108 million compared to $100.5 million last year. As previously stated, this includes $7.4 million of higher revenue resulting from a full additional week of interest income due to our 53 week fiscal year. Financial services operating earnings of $74.4 million compared to $66.7 million in 2024, largely reflecting the additional interest income. Financial services expenses of $33.6 million compared to $33.8 million last year.

As a percentage of the average financial services portfolio, expenses were 1.3% in the fourth quarters of both 2025 and 2024.

In the fourth quarter, the average yield on finance receivables of 17.6% in 2025 compared to 17.7% in 2024, while the average yield on contract receivables was 9.1% in both years. Total loan originations of $285.1 million in the fourth quarter were unchanged from last year and on a year-over-year basis, reflected stable originations of tool storage products.

Moving to Slide 11. Our year-end balance sheet includes approximately $2.5 billion of gross financing receivables with $2.2 billion from our U.S. operation. For extended credit or finance receivables, the U.S. 60-day plus delinquency rate of 2.1% is up 10 basis points from the fourth quarter of 2024.

Additionally, it is also up 10 basis points from last quarter, reflecting the typical seasonal increase between the third and fourth quarters. Trailing 12-month net losses for the overall extended credit portfolio of $72.1 million represented 3.67% of outstandings at year-end. We believe that these portfolio performance metrics remain relatively balanced considering the current environment.

Now turning to Slide 12. Cash provided by operating activities of $268.1 million in the quarter decreased $25.4 million from comparable 2024 levels, primarily reflecting a $52.7 million increase in net cash paid for income taxes, partially offset by a $23 million decrease in working investment.

Net cash provided by investing activities of $25.9 million included proceeds from the sale of a building, a net decrease in finance receivables of $11.2 million as well as capital expenditures of $13.5 million. Net cash used by financing activities of $204.5 million included cash dividends of $126.7 million and the repurchase of 227,000 shares of common stock for $80.4 million under our existing share repurchase programs. As of year-end, we had remaining availability to repurchase up to an additional $260 million of common stock under our existing authorizations.

Turning to Slide 13. Trade and other accounts receivables of $881.4 million represented an increase of $65.8 million from 2024 year-end levels and included $25.3 million of foreign currency translation, $19.8 million related to the previously discussed sale of a building and a higher mix of sales with longer payment terms.

Days sales outstanding of 67 days compared to 62 days at year-end 2024. Inventories increased by $81.8 million from 2024 year-end levels, and that included $41.4 million of foreign currency translation. On a trailing 12-month basis, inventory turns of 2.4 were the same as last year ended.

Our year-end cash position of $1,624.5 million compared to $1,360.5 million at the end of 2024. In addition to our existing cash and expected cash flows from operations, we have more than $900 million available under our credit facilities. There were no amounts borrowed or outstanding under the credit facilities during the year nor was any commercial paper issued or outstanding at the end of the year.

That concludes my remarks on our fourth quarter performance. I have a few outlook items for 2026. With respect to corporate cost, we currently believe that the expenses will approximate $28 million each quarter. We expect that capital expenditures for the year will approximate $100 million, and we currently anticipate that our full year 2026 effective income tax rate will be in the range of 22% to 23%.

I'll now turn the call back to Nick for his closing thoughts. Nick?

Thanks, Aldo. Well, that's the quarter. Sales growth, solid profitability and expanded investments in fortifying our inherent advantages. All at the time of turbulence tariffs, shutdown and conflicts, considerable uncertainty.

C&I sales were up 5% as reported, 2.8% organically. A late comeback for critical industries. We're covering some of the shutdown impact, great -- and great new products in power tools and specialty torque Tools Group. Volume down 0.3% as reported, 0.7% organically about flat. OI margin of 21.2%, up 10 basis points, and gross margin of 42.1%, up 150 basis points against the impact of higher material costs and inflation.

And RS&I, sales up 2.5% as reported, 1% organically. OI margins down, but still strong at 25.2%, and gross margins about flat, resistant to the pressure of cost rises and tariffs, making gains on our advantage in both software and data. And it all came together for diluted EPS of $4.94, up from the $4.82 since reported last year. It was, as I said many times, it's all an encouraging quarter.

Going forward, we believe we'll benefit from our continuous investment in building our advantages. The uncertainty appears to be infra thought, and we believe the resilience of our markets will continue essentially and critical as they are.

We are in -- we are building our advantages, and they are all our advantages, and they are powerful. With our advantage in product -- our product tools really do solve critical tasks. And we have boarded 85,000 of them with new entries always coming.

Our advantages in brands. (inaudible) really is the outward sign of pride and dignity of working men and women taking their professions. It's a respected and preferred many. And with our advantages in people. Skill, committed, battle-tested and enlisted in the expectation of success as a standard.

We believe these strengths will set us apart, will enable us to overcome the turbulence, and will drive Snap-on to extend its positive trajectory throughout this year and well beyond.

Before I turn the call over to the operator, I'll just speak directly to our franchisees and associates. When I refer to our advantages, both now and in the future, I think of you. The quarter was encouraging, and your conviction and hard work has made it so.

For your success once again in authoring another positive performance, you have my congratulations. For the intense energy and extraordinary capability to break the barrier every day, you have my admiration.

And for your continued commitment to our team and your unfailing confidence in our shared future, you have my thanks.

Now I'll turn the call over to the operator. Operator?

(Operator Instructions)

Scott Stember, ROTH Capital.

Mr. Scott Stember, how are you?

Good. I hope it will be the same for you. Question on the Tools Group. We saw a little bit of a rebound in the previous couple of quarters and returned a little bit negative here. Just trying to get a sense, are you seeing any increased level of technician softness?

Or is this you guys just having a greater availability of these quicker payback items, and we're just seeing a little bit more of a mix towards the lower (inaudible) items?

Actually it's -- that's a great question. Look, I think this, I think -- it's about flat. We're up a little bit the last time. So you could look at that as a fact. But we don't see it that way.

We see that the quarter was pretty turbulent. You might think that the shutdown doesn't affect the Tools Group, but you should have been there talking to the franchisees of Maryland and Virginia. They didn't get -- had any effect. They didn't think it was a no-effect situation.

And then the tariffs are getting pretty turbulent and you just think about Canada. There have been 29 different presidential or Prime Minister pronunciation since the beginning of the year about changing the tariffs with Canada, and the other tariffs are not the way they are. And then you have this news every time you get up and they look at the (inaudible). So that affected their -- I think their general view, and then we heard a little bit about that. So I think that was part of it.

Now I think I said in the call, I think sooner or later, our people got to get used to this, so you could kind of expect the thought coming. You saw green shoots, I think, in one in the originations, and the originations being kind of flattish year-over-year and down a little bit, but that's better than it's been. So you kind of believe that, boy, things are -- that's a change. And part of it is pivot, but some of it may be some thaw. So we see that.

And then one of the things I think that's eye-popping, I said so in the call is geez, at this time, the gross margins are up 150 basis points, wowza. So whatever the Tools Group is doing and executing, they're doing pretty well within the conditions they've been handed.

Got you. And I think you alluded to tool storage actually. I think you said it was kind of flattish in the quarter. Can you talk about actual hand tools, diagnostics, just some of the other subsegments?

Sure. Look, look, I'm not going to give you exact numbers. I don't want to pin myself to that cross. But I think -- look, this -- I didn't really say the tool storage is up. I said that originations, which is not what the Tools Group does. Remember, Tools Group sells to the franchisee, and the franchisee unsells, and that becomes an origination.

So the originations are more an indication of what's happening at the level between the franchisee and the customer. So that was sort of flattish, which is all the same positives as I said. The tool storage was still down some year-over-year in the Tools Group selling to the franchisees. So the hand tools is better, diagnostics was down, power tools is up.

Okay. Sorry about that. And then just last question. Sales on to the van versus off the van?

I hate talking about this, Scott, because no month is significant, really, fully significant. We always say that you have a lot of variations from month to month, but it all comes out in the wash in the end. And generally, what we sell on the van equals what we sell off. But this quarter, sales were up, over up, kind of substantially bigger. I don't know if you call it substantial, but clearly, clearly, with quite a bit of room bigger off the van than our sales to the van.

So I think that's a better -- I would say, that's a nice data point, better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick, but I'm not going to hang my hat on it, but it is -- if you want to classify green shoots, maybe this is a green shoot. I just hope the rabbits don't eat the green shoot. But I think -- it's a positive thing.

Luke Junk, Baird.

Maybe if you could just jump off on one of the things you just said ex diagnostics. I think you said it was down in the Tools Group in the quarter. Can we just maybe double-click on that? Not sure if we should think there is some pull forward just from the launch strength that you saw in the middle part of this year? Or is there just maybe some inherent lumpiness?

Can you just separate the change --

Well, it's kind of -- I think it's more -- look, I think it's more inherent lumpiness, driven by the characteristics of the launch. So in the third quarter -- second and third quarter, towards the end of the second quarter, we have launched the TRITON. I think that's got a street price, I don't know, it must be $4,000, $4,500. It's a massive and powerful unit.

And this quarter, we launched the MT2600, which is an entry-level thing, which is substantially lower in price. But a sale is sort of a sale to a franchisee. Yes, maybe it has to work a little harder for the bigger ticket item, but not -- it's still probably got to put in the same amount of time for either one. And so he spends, he does his pitch, show and explains everything, and it gets $5000 or $4,000, I think that's pretty much what you're seeing in this quarter.

Okay. Helpful. I wanted to switch gears to C&I. Critical industry is -- if we look at a quarter ago, returning to kind of modest growth, now tracking up mid-single exiting '25. But it sounds like it actually maybe has been -- was higher in December, given what you mentioned around the shutdown.

Any reason to think that, that momentum doesn't carry over into next year in critical industries?

Well, I think we have -- we have great optimism for our power in critical industries. We think our array of custom kits keeps growing, and therefore, we have a greater span of sale. Our custom kitting capacity, we keep increasing it. And one of the things I didn't fully, I suppose, tease out in this comments is that's what allowed us to catch up at the end. We really pumped it up.

I mean if you looked at October and November, it wasn't the greatest time. Things had -- the military business, which is a nice business for them and go on to accrual, and then they came roaring back. Like I said, you had a see, these guys out there are working. The head of the division was out there and is longer working, packing. So I think this is -- yes, you should see momentum coming out of this quarter.

Now we don't give guidance. So this is one data point that we are positive. And they didn't fully catch up. So therefore, you would expect they have some catch-up coming out. We'll see how that plays out over three months. But I feel good about it.

Last thing kind of coming across both C&I and the Tools Group, just the power tool strength. I mean that's been under pressure for a while here. Pretty short both back in the quarter. I just want to unpack maybe shorter-term impacts given the product launch momentum that you mentioned and just maybe your historical experience in terms of the tails of that momentum leaking into future periods?

Well, I don't know. Look, I think, again, we don't give guidance, but the last time we've launched a product like the Nano, years ago, it was a while ago, this is kind of the uniqueness of it. And it had quite a bit of legs. It went on for a while. It's not -- it's a whole different line. So that tends to have more legs to it.

If you're talking about other products like the long neck ratchet, which I didn't mention on this call, I mentioned last call, 13 inches -- 30% longer than anybody else, trends power at a distance, but that one can be more episodic. And so you have to sell -- find the people who don't have it already if you're a franchisee. And then to some extent, it is episodic, like the diagnostics.

I do think, though, that you're going to see that more and more in power tools today for us because there was a period when we turned our power tools engineers and some of our engineers partially away from new products and said, this was the period in which we couldn't get components. And so you had to use engineering time to target the components that were actually -- you could actually get -- that actually were available and that meant a design change and it eats up time.

And so now we've got everything full strength focused on new products, and they seem to be hitting the ball out of the park with repeatability. So I feel pretty good about it. I think the Nano has got legs, but generally, power tools can be upside.

Sherif El-Sabbahy, Bank of America.

I just wanted to -- on some of the brand building expenses that you had called out, particularly in the Tools Group. What exactly is embedded in those costs? And how do you expect them to what -- how do you expect them to look going forward? Is that sort of an ongoing cost --

Well, I'm not going to give you exactly what's in the cost because you'll be asking me how much I'm spending every quarter on each of those categories. I'm not going to say that. But look, here's the kind of things we worked on. We worked on training. This is the kind of thing, training in our business.

We work some on advertising for the brand. The advertising is up. We worked on building software, which spreads across this business and the RS&I business. We worked on social media, the use of social media more correctly. I mean, these guys are all individual businessmen, the 3,400 vans.

And some of them are great at this stuff and some of them are not. So we worked on those things. That's the -- those are the kinds of things we spent on in the tool.

Understood. And I know the 53rd week wasn't necessarily impactful to the financials. Are you able to give us sort of a ring-fenced size of it and the impact of the year?

Sure. One thing you got to know. It's vastly different between the financial company and the operating company. For the financial company, it's a bonanza. I think Aldo said, it's like $7 million extra profit.

That was pretty much 53rd week. But if you look at the operating companies, you got to understand where it is and it's during the Christmas, the holiday period, and these are expense full, sales weak periods. So it generally is a loser. You have most -- you have a lot of the expenses flowed through your P&L. They're just there like clockwork.

And they don't get any sales. That's what happens. So they're a negative. I will tell you that when you roll that out, it's not what we call it, it's not significant. It's not a significant thing for us, maybe, but it's a little bit of a weight, actually, a little bit of a negative, but not significant.

David MacGregor, Longbow Research.

I guess I wanted to just ask you about last quarter, we had talked about the SFC and you had said there were great orders, you were up mid-single digits, but we're not getting money. I think, obviously the exact quote, you're not getting much of that at all.

So I guess I'm having trouble reconciling that with essentially flat second half sort of Snap-on Tools segment organic growth. Can you just understand the dynamic and also maybe what you saw in the way of fourth quarter growth in the non-SFC fulfillment business?

Yes. Look, I think -- remember, I think I say that the SFC are orders, not sales, so that (inaudible) cancellation.

But you fulfill in the second half --

No. And so what second half, I don't know -- do you mean the second half or the quarter or the fourth quarter?

The second half of the year.

Oh well, the second half of the year is not supported by the SFC. The SFC pretty much starts to blink out in terms of effect just as you cross over the year-end. So there isn't an effect. You see what I mean? It's all in the half.

So you could ask why we didn't do better in the fourth quarter if we had mid-single digits in the SFC. And that's because the actual orders end up being a cocktail of about three things. They're the SFC for that half that we referred to as the kickoff for the second half. The big bang event, and then there are a bunch of usual programs that flow out at different times. They're big promotions.

And then there's the monthly meetings for the franchisees that roll out promotions in each one of those. So the combination of those is what makes the quarter.

So if you say that the SFC orders were 5.8% -- it was like mid-single digits -- and okay, you're not really -- you're not necessarily going to get those. They could be canceled, but they could all be taken up and you could have weakness in one of the promotions or just everybody say every month, well, I got enough, I'm not going to take anything this month. I'm going to take a lot less this month. That is -- that's what makes it so hard to predict.

Now SFC and kick off, you feel good if you get more orders, but it's not definitive. I think I say that when this happens. So that's a look at it. So it's a cocktail of a bunch of different selling efforts that result in the flat quarter.

Yes. Maybe I'll follow up with you offline on that. Is there anything you can say about the regional kickoffs, Nick, and how they're going?

Well, they're over. First of all also, they're behind -- okay, they were in the first quarter, so I don't comment on future, but the one I went to was very positive. People were very enthusiastic. And I would say that our reports from around the country, Aldo went to one, and this was similarly positive. So we think they came out well.

I think like the -- I think the orders were reasonably robust. But like the SFC, they're not definitive. So if you were just going to base your view of the future on the kickoff, you would feel pretty good.

I think what I'd say, David, is more or less, that this was a particularly turbulent time in terms of uncertainty. But if you look at the gross margins, the execution seems to be pretty good. If you look at the originations, it seems like the pivot is working because people buy in some of those small boxes, at least off the van.

If you look at the sales off the van and you say, well, yes, it's only one quarter, but it's better than the sales through the van, that seems like a positive. And if you look at the nature of the world and you wonder if people aren't getting tired of being uncertain and things won't go.

So I think we're kind of optimistic going forward.

Okay. Last question for me is just on the balance sheet. I mean you've got $1.6 billion of cash, a little over $400 million of net cash. You're generating $1 billion a year of free cash flow. I mean you're doing an extraordinary job here.

Where are you going to go with the cash? Remind us on your priorities for M&A?

Okay. Priorities are like this. Well, as you know, I bet you've been looking at us so long. You know this dead nuts. But the -- if you look at it, we're working capital hogs.

So we always have to have pretty good dollar of cash to make sure -- in case things should explode in terms of sales, we want to be ready to fund it because we are not working capital, we are not among the small working capital great inventory turnover, for example. But we -- that's our model. And so you got that. You got to have cash for that.

Then the whole thing is the dividend. We have -- as I said in my call, we have we have declared dividends every year since 1939, and we have never reduced it. So we think about the perpetuity of the dividend. And we think with 16 straight consecutive increases, we always look at in those contexts.

And then you've got acquisitions. We always review -- we're always reviewing acquisitions. Now quite often you look closer and you find out so many awards you don't want it or it's selling into a segment we don't want. But we do look at acquisitions consistently. And we have made several of the car aligner, for example, in Norbar, a bunch of different things over the years.

And then we look at, as Aldo took you through, I think we spent $80 million plus in share buybacks last year.

Bret Jordan, Jefferies.

This is Patrick Buckley on for Bret. Within Tools Group in the US, could you talk a bit more about what you're seeing in the competitive landscape? Any notable shifts in strategies as far as pricing or mix or marketing?

Why do you always ask about the competitors? That's what I want to know. But anyway, look, no, we're not seeing -- I don't think we're seeing so much about that. I mean I think we have less pressure from tariffs than almost anybody else. I'm not sure that everybody's gross margins are up in the Tools Group, but I'm not hearing people talk about pressures, but that's normal.

I'll tell you this. When I get on the van, and I do all the time or meet franchisees or it's -- they never mention the competition. They always -- I shouldn't say never, but they seldom mention the competition. And it's because Snap-on is in a different area. People decide to buy a Snap-on product or they decide to choose from a bunch of other alternatives. That's really the way it is.

We're not actually competing with those guys for the same people. I don't -- we don't see -- our guys don't see it that way. Now I don't know. I think knowing where they source from and some have had difficulty in making in the United States. I think the tariffs have got to give them some fits, haven't given us fits.

So I would think we'd be in a better position. Well, I'm not sure. I mean they might absorb it in profitability. Nobody said to us that anybody's drop in price. Nobody said to us, people are raising a price and it makes a difference to us because we're always above them anyway.

This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Sara Verbsky for any closing remarks.

Thank you all for joining us today. A replay of this call will be available shortly on snapon.com. As always, we appreciate your interest in Snap-on. Good day.

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.