Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us, and welcome to DXP Enterprises first quarter 2026 earnings call. After today's prepared remarks, we will host a question and answer session. I will now hand the conference over to David Little, CEO. David, please go ahead.
Yep. Actually, Samantha, this is Kent Yee, Chief Financial Officer. I'll walk through a few comments, and then we'll hand it over to David Little, our CEO and Chairman. Before we get started, I want to remind you that today's call is being webcast and recorded and includes forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially from those contemplated by these forward-looking statements. A detailed discussion of the many factors that we believe may have a material effect on our business on an ongoing basis are contained in our SEC filings. DXP assumes no obligation to update that information because of new information or future events. During this call, we may present both GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures. A reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP measures is included in our earnings press release. The press release and an accompanying investor presentation are now available on our website at ir.dxpe.com.
I will now turn the call over to David Little, our Chairman and CEO, to provide his thoughts and a summary of our first quarter performance and financial results. David?
Good afternoon, thanks for joining us today on DXP's fiscal 2026 first quarter conference call. We delivered a slow start to 2026, especially sales in January, which improved in February and improved to a greater extent in March. We are not sure why sales in January were so soft, glad to see the growth in the other two months and the growth in bookings during the quarter plus continuing in April. We also maintain gross margin discipline, generated meaningful free cash flow that gives us confidence in the quarters ahead. From an earnings standpoint, the quarter included increased interest expense, amortization, a few discrete items in SG&A like healthcare, legal, audit related costs tied to our acquisition activity, which we view are timing and will normalize and are not reflected of our underlying earning power.
Our strategy remains simple and consistent: be customer-driven experts, execute operationally, grow where we have competitive advantage, allocate capital in a disciplined way. This quarter reflects steady execution across our diversified platforms. We grew sales nearly 10%, expanded gross profit margins, delivered EBITDA margins above 11%, all the while generating strong cash flow. On behalf of the 3,497 DXP people you can trust, I want to thank our customers, suppliers, and shareholders for their continued trust and support. Our team continues to execute with consistency. We remain focused on profitable growth and cash generation. Consolidated performance and in the first quarter, sales were $521.7 million, up 9.5% year-over-year. Sales per business day increased to $8.28 million from $7.57 million.
Gross profit margins expanded 32.3%, nearly 80 basis points higher. Adjusted EBITDA was $57.8 million or 11.1% margin. Operating income totaled $42.5 million. Adjusted diluted earnings per share was $1.26. Free cash flow was $26.3 million. These results are driven by a combination of organic growth, favorable mix, operating execution, and contributions from accretive acquisitions. Margin performance reflects pricing discipline, cost controls, and ongoing shift towards higher value products, engineered solutions, and services. SG&A was higher year-over-year due to several unique and some non-reoccurring items, including healthcare, claims, volatility, legal and audit costs tied to acquisitions, and other one-time expenses. We expected those to normalize as the year progresses and remain focused on managing SG&A while continuing to invest in growth initiatives that generate acceptable returns.
From a growth standpoint, we continue to lean into markets where demand is durable and where DXP's capabilities matter. Water and wastewater, energy infrastructure, general industry. Selected technology-driven markets like data centers and air compression continue to provide attractive long-term demand drivers. Across DXP, growth is coming from several consistent things: expanding technical and engineered solutions, broadening solutions around pumps, automation, filtration, and process equipment. Leveraging our decentralized model to pursue local growth opportunities and cross-selling across platforms and integrating acquisitions more effectively. We are not chasing volume for volume's sake. Growth is targeted at areas where we can maintain margins, generate cash, and deepen our customer relationships. Thank you DXP sales and operational professionals for teaming up together and winning for our customers and stakeholders. Thank you to our corporate support for their efforts to support both internal and external customers. Segment performance.
Innovative Pumping Solutions continues to deliver engineering solutions that matter. Sales increased 37.7% to $111.7 million. Growth was driven by energy-related and water and wastewater activity, along with contributions from recent acquisitions. Bookings and backlog in energy infrastructure remain above long-term averages, and we're encouraged by the traction we're seeing early in fiscal 2026. Many of these engineered solutions are large, multi-quarter in nature, which support revenue visibility and backlog conversion moving forward. We also continue to build scale in water and wastewater markets within IPS, where municipal infrastructure investments and regulatory requirements create long-cycle demand for pumps and treatment solutions. Service Centers produced 3.3% total sales growth. This segment continues to benefit from its diversification across end markets and its multi-product MRO-focused model.
Growing is coming from technical products such as automation, vacuum pumps, filtration, newer pump brands, serving water and industrial applications. We are also seeing demand improvements in markets like air compression and data centers, where customers need reliable systems for pumping, cooling, power, and filtration areas where DXP can provide bundled solutions rather than just individual components. Supply Chain Services grew 2.7% year-over-year and 6.2% sequentially. This business continues to onboard new customers. As we have discussed before, implementation, timing, and facility-level ramp-up can create temporary variability, but demand for USSC's technology that enables integrated supply solutions continues to build. The sales pipeline remains encouraging, and we expect performance to improve gradually on onboarding, mature, and program volume scale. Cash flow and capital discipline and balance sheet. Cash generation remains a core focus for DXP.
In the first quarter, we generated $29.6 million in operating cash flow and $26.3 million of free cash flow, even while investing in working capital to support growth, particularly in IPS and our water-focused business. Our balance sheet remains strong with ample liquidity to fund organic growth initiatives, integrate recent acquisitions, pursue disciplined, accretive M&A, and maintain financial flexibility through different macro environments. We continue to emphasize cash conversion, working capital discipline, and return on invested capital when making growth and acquisition decisions. As we move through fiscal 2026, our priorities remain clear. Drive organic growth and attractive end markets. Maintain margin discipline and operational execution. Execute strategic, accretive acquisitions and generate cash and allocate capital thoughtfully. We like the current setup in our markets, especially water, general industry, and energy-related infrastructure.
Bookings are trending higher, backlog remains healthy to higher, based on current visibility, we're encouraged about the second quarter and the remainder of the year. DXP's diversified model, improving demand indicators, and consistent operating discipline gives us confidence in our ability to execute through fiscal 2026. In closing, I want to thank our DXP people for their execution, teamwork, and commitment. They continue to differentiate DXP in the markets we serve and create value for our customers and shareholders. With that, I'll turn it over to Kent and walk you through the financial details.
Thank you, David, and thank you to everyone for joining us for our review of our 1st quarter of 2026 financial results. Q1 shows that we carried momentum from last year into fiscal 2026, but started off slower than anticipated. That said, at this time last year, we experienced a similar trend and finished 2025 strong. Likewise, we anticipate 2026 to be another strong year. Specifically, in terms of Q1, we had strengthened sales during the months of February and March, strong gross margin performance, and good free cash flow generation. To summarize the quarter, Q1 key takeaways are as follows, 9.5% sales growth, with sales per business day showing 28% growth between January and March, strong gross margin performance with gross margin improvement sequentially and year-over-year, and great quarterly free cash flow generation.
In terms of our detailed results, total sales for the first quarter increased 9.5% year-over-year to $521.7 million. Acquisitions that have been with DXP for less than a year contributed $40.7 million in sales during the quarter. Average daily sales for the first quarter were $8.3 million per day versus $7.6 million per day in Q1 of 2025. Adjusting for acquisitions, average daily sales were $7.6 million per day for the first quarter of 2026 versus $7.1 million per day during the first quarter of 2025.
As is typical, sales accelerated through the quarter, with average daily sales increasing from $7.2 million per day in January to $9.2 million per day in March, reflecting a normal quarter-end push, highlighting strong acceleration coming into quarter-end. In terms of our business segments and on a year-over-year basis, Innovative Pumping Solutions grew 37.7%. This was followed by Service Centers growing 3.3% and Supply Chain Services growing 2.7% year-over-year. In terms of our Service Centers, sales grew 3.3% year-over-year and declined 5.1% sequentially. Regions that experienced sequential as well as year-over-year sales growth include our South Central, South Rockies, and South Atlantic regions. From a product perspective, our metalworking division also experienced sequential and year-over-year sales growth.
From a segment operating income perspective, we have had four consecutive quarters of around 14% or greater, and we look for this to continue as we still believe there are regions that can enhance or become more consistent in their operating income margins. In terms of Innovative Pumping Solutions, we continue to experience strong backlogs in both our energy and water and wastewater businesses. Our Q1 2026 energy-related average backlog increased 2.1% sequentially, stemming the declines we saw in Q3 and Q4 of last year. As David mentioned, and as we have been discussing on previous earnings calls, we have booked a few large engineered projects in both energy and water that we have recognized some revenue in 2025 and will continue into 2026.
The conclusion continues to remain that we are trending meaningfully above all notable sales levels based upon where our backlog stands today. Our DXP Water platform experienced our fourteenth consecutive quarter of sequential sales growth, and we look for this to continue as we move through 2026. That said, we are seeing project and product delivery timelines stretched in an already long cycle business. We also see strength in our IPS Water backlog as it continues to grow due to a combination of organic and acquisition additions. It is worth noting that DXP Water was 66% of IPS sales in Q1. Supply Chain Services performance primarily reflects a 6.2% increase sequentially, as well as growing 2.7% year-over-year.
As we discussed during Q3 and Q4 of last year, we experienced an uptick in Supply Chain Services performance, which we are seeing here in Q1. Interest and demand for SCS services is increasing because of the proven technology and efficiencies they perform for all their industrial customers, and we expect a stronger 2026 as we onboard new customers. Turning to our gross margins, DXP's total gross margins were 32.3%, a 79 basis point improvement over Q1 of 2025. This improvement is attributed to increased margins year-over-year across all three business segments and the contribution from acquisitions at a higher overall relative gross margin versus our base DXP business. That said, from a segment mix sales contribution in Q1, Service Centers contributed 65%, Innovative Pumping Solutions was 23%, and Supply Chain Services was 12% of sales.
With our mix increasing more towards Innovative Pumping Solutions, this continues to elevate DXP's gross margins. In terms of operating income, combined.
Ladies and gentlemen, we are currently experiencing technical difficulties. Please stand by as we resolve the issue. Thank you for your patience. We will now continue the call. Kent, when you're ready.
Thank you, Samantha. We'll retrace our thoughts a little bit here and then kind of pull it forward. In terms of turning to DXP's gross margins, DXP's total gross margins were 32.3%, a 79 basis point improvement over Q1 of 2025. This improvement is attributed to increased margins year-over-year across all three business segments and the contribution from acquisitions at a higher overall relative gross margin versus our DXP business. That said, from a segment mix sales contribution in Q1, Service Centers contributed 65%, Innovative Pumping Solutions was 23%, and Supply Chain Services was 12% of sales. With our mix increasing more towards Innovative Pumping Solutions, this continues to elevate DXP's gross margins.
In terms of operating income, combined, all three business segments increased 105 basis points year-over-year in business segment operating income margins. This was driven by improvements in operating income margins across all three segments year-over-year and sequentially. Total DXP operating income was $42.5 million in Q1 of 2026. Our SG&A for the quarter increased $16.1 million from Q1 of 2025 and $6.2 million from Q4 of 2025 to $126.1 million. The increase reflects normal seasonal amounts in terms of payroll taxes, insurance, and other administrative items, as well as the growth in the business and associated incentive compensation.
Additionally, as David mentioned in his comments, the quarter included some unique and discrete one-time items, including elevated healthcare costs, excess legal and consulting costs, as well as one-time equipment and fleet costs. SG&A as a percentage of sales increased 115 and 144 basis points year-over-year and sequentially to 24.2% of sales. Turning to EBITDA, Q1 2026 adjusted EBITDA was $57.8 million. Adjusted EBITDA margins were 11.1%. It is worth noting that our adjusted EBITDA margins remain above 11% amidst our normal financial seasonality associated with higher payroll taxes, insurance, and associated items. We could continue to expect to benefit from the fixed cost SG&A leverage we experience as we grow sales and anticipate there is further operating leverage as we move through fiscal 2026.
In terms of EPS, with a Q1 net income of $20 million, our earnings per diluted share for Q1 2026 was $1.22 per share versus $1.39 per share for Q4 of 2025. We would point out that in the fall we repriced and raised an incremental $205 million in debt. Interest expense increased by $1.8 million compared to the first quarter of last year. Conservatively adjusting for some of the one-time acquisition and the excess expense items, adjusted earnings per diluted share for Q1 of 2026 was $1.26 per share. Turning to the balance sheet and cash flow. In terms of working capital, our working capital increased $17.9 million from December to $379.6 million. As a percentage of sales, this amounted to 18.4%.
As mentioned during Q4, we will continue to grow into the working capital as a percentage of sales, specifically the impact from recent acquisitions. We do anticipate further acquisitions, however, which could cause us to move upwards, albeit we are focused on managing working capital as efficiently as possible as we scale and grow. In terms of cash, we had $213.4 million in cash on the balance sheet as of March 31st. This is a de-decrease of $90.4 million compared to the end of Q4, and this primarily reflects the acquisition of Mid Atlantic Storage Systems, PREMIERflow, and Ambiente H2O. In terms of CapEx in the first quarter was $3.3 million, or essentially flat compared to Q4 of 2025, and a decrease of $16.6 million compared to the first quarter of 2025.
As we have discussed, we were making investments in the business as we grow, this began to taper during the second half of last year. We see our current levels at less than 1% of sales as more of what we would expect in terms of maintenance capital expenditures. Turning to free cash flow, cash flow from operations was $29.8 million in Q1 of this year versus Q1 of last year was $3 million. As a reminder, during Q1 of 2025, we included tax payments which were deferred from Q2 of last year due to storms that were paid in Q1 of 2025. That said, we continue investing in projects and experienced an uptick in receivable days during Q1. As we move through 2026, this should balance out, and we should see a decrease in receivable days.
Continue to focus tightly on managing projects from a cash flow perspective and look to align billings with the investments. Return on invested capital, or ROIC, at the end of the first quarter was 34.1% and is consistent with DXP driving margins, operating leverage, and improving our run rate EBITDA. As of March 31st, our fixed charge coverage ratio was 2.5 to 1, and our secured leverage ratio was 2.6 to 1, with a covenant EBITDA for the last 12 months of $243.9 million. Total debt outstanding on March 31st was $844.7 million.
In terms of liquidity, as of the first quarter, we were undrawn on our ABL with $31.7 million in letters of credit or $153.3 million in availability and liquidity of $366.7 million, which includes $213.4 million in cash. DXP is poised to execute our acquisition strategy and would anticipate closing another one to two acquisitions before the second quarter ends. In terms of acquisitions, we closed on three during the quarter: Mid Atlantic Storage Systems, PREMIERflow, and Ambiente H2O. DXP's acquisition pipeline continues to remain active, and the market continues to present compelling opportunities. As we discussed during the Q4 earnings call, we anticipated closing one to three acquisitions before mid-year, and we have closed three deals year to date.
We have another three under letter of intent and another two closely to coming under letter of intent. We are stressing sustainable performance with our acquisitions and remain comfortable with our ability to execute on our pipeline. Heading into 2026, we refreshed our balance sheet, which has allowed us to continue to invest in the business, both organically and through acquisitions, while also returning capital to shareholders. We are excited about the future. We are excited because there is still substantial value embedded in DXP. We look forward with great confidence to a future of sustained growth and market outperformance. Our resilient and critical MRO and supply chain solutions, combined with our engineered solution capabilities and exposure to secular trends, including water and wastewater, will continue to drive our future sales and profitability. We are excited about the future.
I will now turn the call over for questions.
We will now begin the question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, press star one again. We ask that you pick up your handset when asking a question to allow for optimum sound quality. If you are muted locally, please remember to unmute your device. Your first question comes from the line of Zach Marriott with Stephens. Zach, your line is open. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon, and thank you for taking my questions. I heard you give the January.
Good afternoon, Zach
I heard you give the January and March daily sales number. Could you please just fill us in for February and then Q2 thus far?
Yeah, no, absolutely. I'll just kind of go from the beginning of the year. January was $7.2 million per day. February was $8.4 million per day. March was $9.2 million per day. April was $9 million per day.
Noted. Thank you. Is there anything that should drive a meaningful margin difference, whether up or down, when comparing 2Q to 1Q?
You know, you know, Zach, obviously, you know, there's SG&A leverage, which we talk about in our comments. As David mentioned, you know, January was a light month. You know, we came in at around 11.1% EBITDA margins, and that's where we've been the last three quarters or so. That said, I think, you know, we feel good going into Q2. We don't provide direct formal guidance, but I think.
We do believe there's more leverage in the business and we believe margins could be higher. If that answers your question. If sales keep driving in the direction that the trends show. By the way, you know, on a monthly, year-over-year basis, that April number is 15% up year-over-year compared to April of last year. That's gonna drive incremental margin to the bottom line as we kind of move forward.
Yep, that's responsive, thank you. Just one more, if I could. Corporate expenses have fluctuated over the last year from as low as $20 million to up to $28 million this last quarter. Should we use the $28 million as the best proxy for 2Q and beyond, or should this number just vary significantly over the balance of the year?
There is some variability. I mean, we, Zach, we pointed out in our comments, there was some what we call discrete, unique, one-time items, including some consulting fees, some fleet costs that we normally wouldn't incur. That said, I do think there are some costs in there, like our healthcare claims, that we have control over but you don't have control over, if you understand kind of how those are driven, if you will. I think as we grow, as we add people, that's a category that naturally would increase. From absolute dollar perspective, I wouldn't sit here and say it would be $20 million.
It could surely be a blend of between the $20 million-$28 million here over the short to medium term. Once again, as we grow, as we add acquisitions, as we add people, you're gonna have increased healthcare claims in particular, we're self-insured as a company. You know, now we hope for a healthy employee base and we have all those things. The reality is, you do provide people health insurance, and then that's part of what you do. We've grown pretty significantly through acquisitions here recently, and so some of our costs have gone up correspondingly.
Understood. That's all I have, and I'll turn it back.
Your next question comes from the line of Dilyara Sailaubayeva . Dilyara, your line is open. Please go ahead.
Yep. Hello, can you hear me?
Yes, we can hear you.
Oh, yep. Hello, everyone. I just would like to ask, I mean, are you seeing any changes in pricing dynamics across your key end markets, particularly in energy, and how is that impacting margins and demand?
I believe the question was how's the war kind of affecting the oil and gas industry on margins and demand.
I mean-
Is that I missed the first part.
Yeah. I mean.
Okay
Do you see any changes in pricing in, I mean, yeah, particularly in energy?
Sure. Sure. Yeah, I, our oil and gas business is doing good and it's growing and like I said, like we've said in the past, we have booked some really large orders. We've booked some very nice orders here recently, and they still can be competitive. We also do remanufacturing of pumps, and so when we are able to sell those type of products, they're based on delivery, and we can produce pumps faster than anybody else can. In that case, our margin goes up. When speed to delivery matters, then our margin goes up. We have some very nice margins in that particular area. I would say in general, demand, it's twofold.
One is oil companies aren't going crazy just because oil prices are $100 or $100 and above, because they feel like the war and things like that are gonna be resolved at some point in time. They, you know, they can't count on those kind of prices. They expect them to come down some. They're not going crazy, but on the other hand, they have a lot of extra money, and so they're spending it, so demand is up in that sense. It's up some. It's not just booming, is how I would answer that.
Okay, thanks. That helps a lot. My next question would be, you recently participated in DICE. Did you identify any meaningful opportunities, either from a commercial or acquisition standpoint?
The question was around DICE, I guess, and the, did you say, or?
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
DICE, the Data Centre Investment Conference that you've participated, did you identify any meaningful opportunities or, I mean, from commercial or acquisition standpoint?
Yeah, I think from an acquisition standpoint, hey, we're always out there, you know, as a business, whether the field and/or us here at Corporate, if you will. You know, from a pipeline standpoint, as I mentioned in my comments, we have three letters of intent, if you will, in place today that we're working through due diligence. We have another two that are closely in the process to being under letter of intent. Point being, I guess, is, hey, we're still in acquisition mode. We think there's compelling opportunities out there. Obviously, our recent focus has been on the water, wastewater side, and we're still finding opportunities in that space. You know, as we always say, DXP is in the business of buying businesses, we're always finding opportunities.
We spend a lot of time finding the right fit, in particular, so.
Yep. That's it for me. Thank you.
Thank you.
We've reached the end of the Q&A session. I will now turn the call back to David Little for closing remarks.
I would just reiterate that January was just surprisingly slow. I have no clue as to why it was across the board. It was in water. It was in oil and gas. It was in general industry. It was in everything. I don't have anything to point to. That kind of threw us off stride a bit. We didn't produce great results. I think that's obvious. With that said, bookings in January have kind of ticked up. They've ticked up higher in February. They're ticking up higher in March. We feel good about what we're doing going forward. Sorry about January, but we feel good about the year.
We're looking forward to a great year, and appreciate everybody hanging in there. Thanks.
This concludes today's call. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect.