All right. Perfect. All right. Well, good morning, everybody, and thanks for joining us for the third and last day here at the Laguna Conference. It is my pleasure to have with me today, Gabe Bruno, Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, and Treasurer of Lincoln Electric. Thank you so much, Gabe, for joining.
It is great to be here, Angel.
Thank you. Well, before we get started, I just want to read a quick disclaimer. For important disclosures, please see the Morgan Stanley research disclosures website at www.morganstanley.com/researchdisclosures. If you have any questions, please reach out to your Morgan Stanley representative. Again, Gabe, thank you so much for joining us. Lots of things to discuss, and obviously, macro is a big aspect of what is happening right now. But I want to actually go a little bit more idiosyncratic at first and a little bit higher level and go back to your RISE strategy, and start there in terms of talking about what you laid out as a longer-term outlook in terms of achieving high 20s incremental margins by 2030.
Maybe if we could start with that bigger picture and just talk about the concrete structural changes inside of Lincoln and initiatives that are ultimately expected to drive that kind of improvement over the years.
Well, thanks, Angel. That's a great place to start, so thank you. In focusing on long-term value creation, I've been with the company now this year, 31 years, and we have consistently improved the operating profile of our business. Think about an operating margin through each cycle, improving 200 basis points per cycle. You've seen that. That has taken us from a largely regional business model. We manage the international business, the European, the Asia, the North American businesses, more as distinct business units. Over the years, we have determined that we can create a lot more value by looking at all of our operations, particularly where we should, like in the welding business, and think about what are those disciplines that can scale the enterprise. For example, we pointed to finance.
Kind of a simple example, but over the last strategy period, think about Higher Standard last five years, we improved the operating profit of our business by 50 basis points beyond just in finance. We're looking at structural changes that we essentially drive an enterprise-wide view of our business and how do we leverage capabilities. Same in HR, same in IT, same in key disciplines like supply chain, procurement, engineering. You're going to see us do more and more of how do we leverage the capabilities across the enterprise and create incremental value. That gives us confidence from accelerating the level of margin improvement over each cycle from 200 basis points to 300 basis points. You go from a mid-20s incremental margin, which is our historical profile, to a high-20s incremental margins. That on top of what are the disciplines that are customer facing.
We're talking about our Spotlight strategy that looks at operational capabilities, supply chain, how are we servicing our customers. That gives us confidence that we can achieve that. A lot of great structural work you can anticipate in how we approach our business model, and that's what gives us confidence to drive a step change in that.
That's very helpful. Maybe just as we kind of work our way to some of the near-term dynamics, just given how much is happening, should we think about that as more of a steady cadence between now and 2030? Or how should we think about that progression and what you've already put in place?
I think that's the best way to think about it. A steady ratable type of improvement over the next five years.
Okay.
There'll be elements that will be more accelerated than others, but on an enterprise level, that's a good way to think about it.
Perfect. Ultimately there's so much happening. It's hard not to ultimately ask about kind of the near-term dynamics that are happening, right? We still have, it seems like a lot of self-help, a lot of initiatives internally that will drive that high 20s. But given the difficulties of the current macro backdrop, I think last week you indicated 3Q incremental margins, maybe a little bit more toward the lower 20s. Then just a lot of that, obviously, inflation that's been very topical and very well-covered. Can you just maybe help us unpack that a little bit more in a bit more detail? What are you exactly seeing in terms of that inflation? What specific segments or pockets, and ultimately, should we think about that as kind of just a 3Q dynamic or also 4Q?
Yeah. There's a lot there, but inherently, we have been raising the issue of persistent inflation. We had announced price increases in the second quarter, in the May timeframe, put those in place. But we had just seen consistent inflation across our welding businesses. So the actions we've taken cover both the Americas as well as the international businesses. And with energy costs, logistics costs, supply chain dynamics, all those point to an incremental consistent level of inflation. So because of that, our strategy is to be price cost neutral, and so we take the actions to maintain that kind of posture. Because we had seen that persistency, we took additional pricing actions in the Americas, effective beginning of September. In the international markets, we'll have some towards the end of September. We won't see that fully mature into the fourth quarter timeframe.
That incrementally represents about 100 basis points of incremental price that you'll see in the fourth quarter. But in the meanwhile, because of the cost pressures, we moved from mid-20s incrementals to low 20s. That on top of very strong demand. The same dynamics that we have talked about across all the product lines in the Americas segment in particular Consumables, standard equipment, automation, just continued strength from a demand perspective. We're just navigating a price-cost dynamic, which is part of our disciplines. Want to make sure that we're protecting the operating model.
And that was actually, you kind of started on my next question, is just ultimately you did talk about that momentum that we're seeing from the demand side. It doesn't seem like anything really is slowing down. So can we just unpack that a little bit more in terms of, one, when you take those two pieces, the inflation, the incremental price, on a net basis, is this still, in terms of earnings, going to wash out, net neutral? Is it the incremental strength in demand that you're seeing, is that kind of, again, offset that or still a little bit of a net negative, but just again, the trajectory in the right direction?
Yeah. From a dollar perspective, we feel confident.
Okay.
It's more about what's the incremental margin contribution.
Yeah.
The demand profile continues to be strong. Just additional comment on that that we point to is that we had already seen consistency in volumes on the consumable side of our business, flat to slightly up, then we saw in the Americas mid-single digit type growth in volumes. Standard equipment, very strong. That continued through this third quarter- to- date. That on top of the strength we have already seen in the order patterns, the backlog on the automation just continues to give us very strong conviction on the demand profile in the business.
I guess fair to say that even with all the geopolitics and macro, you have not seen any kind of step change as we have kind of evolved from August to September. I know September can be a big month, and it is still, we are only halfway through it, but it does not sound like you are seeing any-
We are seeing the same kind of demand profile.
Got it. Very helpful. Let us keep going and get a little bit deeper now, perhaps going into Americas again, maybe on the industrial environment, just, you talked about, again, the meaningful acceleration. Could we maybe talk about some of the different end markets? I think there is a lot of questions around the manufacturing activity, the PMIs that we are seeing. Just help us understand a little bit deeper into your business, ultimately, across the different end markets. You mentioned some of the product lines, consumables, equipment, but just the different end markets, what are you seeing in terms of that demand?
Yeah. I think it's pretty important to understand what is happening in real production activity across end markets.
When you are servicing factory activity, you can think of consumable activity, production requirements, volumes. When you see consistency over a period of time, that generally leads to investment. When we point to standard equipment, the velocity of incremental investment, that would give you a sense that there's a progression in the potential expansion in the industrial activity. When we look at each of the end markets, for example, when you look at general industry, a little over a third of our business, you look to what's happening on industrial production.
How consistent is that production velocity? What is the sentiment? In eight months in a row now of the PMI and orders and all the dynamics there pointing above 50, so expanding. What does that mean in terms of investment?
When we talk about standard equipment and talk about how the progression of automation ties into that, you see not only factory activity, production activity, steady to improvement, but conviction of capital and capital deployment. That's what we point to. General industry is seeing that. Heavy industry, the key driver there is to think through what's happening in construction and ag and mining. We believe that we've seen a trough, and we believe that because we've seen more steadiness in consumable volumes and its production, then starting to see more improvement in investment.
When we look at point to heavy industry, we are talking about that steadiness and actual activity, then also conviction of investment. Same thing on structural fabrication. We are seeing a lot of strength there. Energy, strength in the Americas. Obviously, some pockets of pressure in the Middle East and that, but very bullish on energy. Then where we are seeing mid-single digits down YoY is in automotive. On the automotive side, think about our consumables following what the headlines are on automotive production, which we are right online on. The question becomes: When do you start to see conviction of investment?
Right.
That is how we point to what are the program launches out 2028, 2029 mean to us? What are the S&P report out going to look like in October? Seeing positive there and then seeing the level of quoting activity increase in our business and seeing that turn into orders will give us more conviction on the automotive side of the end market. But except for automotive, the strength in production and investment we are seeing progressive across all the end markets.
That is super helpful, and I think, I do want to get into automation a little bit, which touches autos a lot in a second. But maybe before we go into that, just maybe one extra layer I want to put on the pricing front. You mentioned the 100 basis points and what you have kind of implemented in September, in one area in late September. Can you help us understand, I guess, just the broader picture of price for your business and the cadences we should think about the implications to kind of price cost as we start to get into 2027?
Yeah. We are going to take pricing actions where we are dealing with inflationary pressures. We just took pricing actions in September. We expect to be price-cost neutral with those actions. And we will take additional price actions if we see otherwise. But our posture is to maintain a price-cost neutral posture. We believe we have taken the price actions to achieve that in the fourth quarter, and that obviously leads into 2027 and beyond. But that is our posture. If we see things otherwise, we will take additional pricing actions.
As you think about the different distribution channels, so you have distribution, you have OEMs, any differences in terms of your ability to kind of get that price and achieve that price neutrality?
Yeah, it's a great question, Angel, because I like to reinforce that more than 60% of our business is sold through channels. The channel is very disciplined. We provide notice. We announced, for example, the price increases are effective in September and August to provide the channel some lead time and be able to navigate changes in pricing.
Right.
So 60% + is sold through the channel, 20% automation, which is really about value proposition, and the other 20% is really where we're dealing with OEM specific type of pricing. So largest part of our business is very disciplined, through a channel, through automation. It's really about how do we manage the notice and level of alignment to our price-cost posture.
Got it. Okay. No, that all makes a lot of sense. Again, maybe now shifting over to automation, this is an area that has become a broader part of your business, a lot of acquisitions over the years, as well as very strong organic growth. But more recently it's been obviously a little bit softer because of the ties to ultimately automotive. As you think about this automation business, I think it's broader than just robotic welding, right? It's material handling, testing, and other things. Where do you ultimately see Lincoln Electric as you think about automation in the value chain longer term and where you'll play?
Yeah. I think a key driver for that is thinking about our customers and what are the solutions requirements, and just follow the needs of our customers, and that's broad-based. If we're talking about automotive, how do we deepen our capabilities to provide the kind of automation solutions that we have? Think about acquisitions over time, where 40%, 50% of our business tied to the welding fabrication, but we've added capabilities in material handling and testing and positioning that broadens the offering, and that's kind of how we see it, and how do we follow our customers in enhancing the value proposition of solutions we provide in automation. You think about broadly then outside of automotive, how do we also then foster an adaption of automation capabilities? Over the last few years, you've seen the introduction of cobots.
We're working to introduce physical AI, and we have a trade show coming up in October and introducing the prototypes that we've done to be able to take orders. How do we drive better adoption in automation in small mid-size fabricators, as well as some of the larger players in heavy industry? We want to provide the kind of solution set that is following our customer needs, but then also enhancing the adoption of automation capabilities across end markets.
Prior to our acquisition of Fori, let's say in 2022, we're pretty balanced in looking at general industry, heavy industries, structural fabrication, automotive. We leaned more heavily with the acquisition into automotive, but it introduced capabilities to, again, provide deeper solutions to our customer base. Think about it in that context, following customers with a broad set of capabilities of automation solutions.
Yeah, and I feel you kind of answered it in that light, but also, I wanted to maybe think about it from the perspective, at least for me, I always think about automation as much easier to do in high volume areas, very standardized areas. As you started to give, you mentioned smaller fabricators or in manufacturing operations that might be more customized or lower volume, and making automation make sense there. Can you just talk about that? Are there any structural limitations that you see, or is it just about adding, like you said, value propositions, technologies that ultimately make it more enhance the value kind of offering from automation for them? How do you think about that longer term, or will it still be primarily this standardized autos market?
Longer term is how do we leverage our IP capabilities to richen the mix of our business? When you think about the margin profile of our automation business, we were pushing high single digits last year and into the first half of this year, and we have an objective to achieve mid-teens type of an EBIT profile. That does mean how do we structure the kinds of solutions that are going to be accretive to the model?
Pre-engineered type components, you hear us talk about that, what are those offerings in robotic cells or cobots or the technologies that can enhance the mix of business from an automation perspective and still meet all the customization requirements, the integration requirements for our customers. So it depends a little bit about the context of our customer needs, but also our own objectives to continue to drive high single digit organic growth in the long term with the objective of mid-teens type of an EBIT profile.
Mm-hmm. You are kind of perfectly weaving it into my next few questions here, just put the pre-engineered cells, I think that dynamic has been a factor in terms of impacting the margins, right? The more kind of impact perhaps from larger engineered systems that might be a little bit lower margin. Ultimately, how should we think about the balance of the portfolio, and is there a point where perhaps the business becomes more meaningfully scalable in that less project-oriented type of business and more pre-engineered? How should we think about that progression of shift of the mix?
Well, we definitely want to richen the mix because we have our EBIT objectives to achieve that mid-teens. It also depends on where our customers are progressing, right? Obviously there is going to be a need for integration and the custom requirements for the offerings on a project basis. We have also done some very nice acquisitions in structural fabrication, the Zeman and PythonX capabilities we introduced some years back. We will continue to nurture that in a very strong market. So the pre-engineered component becomes a strategy for servicing areas of the business that are growing, but also in richening the mix of business.
And maybe just last one, I guess, on automation, I think, just if you could walk us through the progression of that over the next few quarters. Again, had faced a little bit of more challenges over the last year, but you are starting to see better orders and some signs of improvements. So how should we expect that business to ultimately progress here?
Yeah. We are on a path that we believe high single-digit organic growth with a continuous improvement in the margin profile of the business. That is kind of how we see it.
And that is kind of the exit rate already puts you in a good spot from this year into next year.
Oh, absolutely. Yeah.
All right. Perfect. I just wanted to switch over to a little bit more of the geopolitical backdrop. As we think about EMEA, you have been a little bit more cautious on your expectations on the region, for obvious reasons, with everything happening with Iran-U.S. conflict and just broader kind of energy prices. As you think about that unrest, what are the implications? Just broadly, what are you seeing today in terms of has it had any impact on the business in the region, and just how are you seeing that kind of unfold?
Well, when I think of EMEA, I am going to separate the Middle East discussion from core Europe. Middle East actually had progressed better than anticipated. We were talking during the second quarter of $8 million-$10 million type headwind per quarter. Think about that mix within our international segment, but also exports coming out of the Americas. We were down $1 million-$2 million in the second quarter. We updated the $8 million-$10 million to be $6 million-$7 million type of headwind per quarter. So we saw that progressing better than anticipated. Still some headwinds, but better than anticipated. We are postured for the project requirements there, the rebuild going on in the Middle East. So we are very positive about the long-term trajectory of the Middle East. Core Europe, a little bit more challenged.
Not just because Middle East dynamics, it is just because we have not seen a consistency in industrial demand capacity investment. So our posture for Europe is to think of it as more of a stable operating organic profile within that market, but to continue to challenge how we address our business model. So you look at our long-term EBIT objectives for international, it is to improve to 12%-15%. We expect all of our businesses to improve. So the European context is less expectations, no expectations for growth, frankly, and to shape the model to be able to drive that kind of a margin profile. We believe we can do that.
Got it. Maybe sticking with the geopolitics dynamics, turning over perhaps to Canada and the retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods. I know you have historically sourced a little bit from Canada and had some exposure. Can you just remind us of what your exposure is, what the implications are of the Canada-U.S. relationship, and just help us understand that.
Yeah. Southbound, largely we've talked about this in the past, it's really driven by Section 232 tariffs. Think about the metals component. So we're managing through that. We have managed through that. Don't see anything changing near-term on that. On the retaliatory side, northbound, we see that as a minor impact. We're still digesting what that all means, but our initial analysis is not significant.
Got it. And I think, because to your point on the metal side, that's not necessarily new, right? We had started a couple of administrations ago, and so you've, I think over the years, been looking to try to source more domestically to reduce that. So has there been a reduction in that? What is the kind of overall exposure that we should think about from a materials sourcing to Canada?
Yeah, that's a long cycle activity for sure, but we have seen good progress in domestic suppliers.
Okay.
So we'll continue to navigate the requirements domestically, but also source from our partners in the north.
Got it. That's very helpful. Now switching to the international side, we talked about Europe being challenged. I think looking at Asia, thinking about China, India, parts of Southeast Asia I think have been a little bit stronger. In the past, I tend to think about China as being fairly competitive in terms of the ventures that you've had in the region. Just how do you think about what is structurally different about the opportunity? Has anything changed in terms of the Asia opportunity set or just what's the near-term and longer-term outlook for Lincoln Electric in Asia?
Yeah. Think about when we talk about international organic growth, we're pointing to low to mid-single digit organic growth. That's all Asia. If you think about 70% of our international business is EMEA, the balance is Asia, so all that growth comes from Asia. We're very bullish on what's progressing in India and how we position our business now in China, Southeast Asia, all that you pointed to. The acquisition we did last year in Australia tied into mining and wear applications, very key to growth. We look at Asia as nicely growing organically, and we continue to invest in those markets. Bullish on Asia.
Yeah. As you think about those investments, you mentioned some of the acquisitions you've done. Should we think about it as being more inorganic in terms of continuing to invest in that, or are there organic opportunities that you can do to ultimately continue to enhance that?
Yeah, we'll continue. The assumptions are driven off organic growth, but we'll look at opportunities for inorganic opportunities. We see the welding business as fragmented still, and as we see opportunities to continue to drive an investment base that ties it to our core capabilities, we'll do so.
And maybe last one just on that region. Again, the competitiveness of that market in the past, I think has been a factor. Has anything changed ultimately there, or is it just the type of products that you're going into market? What makes it more attractive now perhaps than in the past China may have been?
Yeah, the key thing is really driving our value proposition. So whether it's in India or Southeast Asia, the strength of our positioning in energy or some of the end markets, that really highlights how we position the kind of growth that we would expect. So the competitive dynamics really haven't changed a whole lot. But how we approach the markets with a value proposition that will differentiate positioning in India or China, Southeast Asia, or I mentioned Australia.
Yeah.
Those are capabilities that start to differentiate how do we create value, how do we solve and provide solutions for our customers.
Amazing. No, that's very helpful. I do want to take a second in case anybody in the audience had any questions, feel free to raise your hand, and we can get a mic to you. If not, I want to continue on that, maybe just last one on the international side. We talked about Europe. Maybe just to close that out a little bit, how much earnings operating leverage is there in that business ultimately, whenever we do see any kind of recovery? And what are you looking at in terms of factors that will make you feel more hopeful that we're starting to see a recovery in the region? I know, for instance, Germany has talked about infrastructure investment.
What is it that you're watching ultimately to see that?
Yeah. For sure, industrial investment, that's a key macro driver for any market. When I say shaping our business model, is really addressing the fixed cost structure within the business. So enhancing margins with an assumption of no volume improvement, but enhancing margins a couple hundred, 300 basis points, kind of the key driver there. So when we do see growth, so let's say the markets do start to expand, and you see some consistency in Eastern Europe or Western Europe, then we would expect incrementals to be into the low to mid-30s. Because there's this inherently a larger fixed cost basis in the European model than outside of Europe, particularly in the U.S.
Right. No, that's very helpful. Then maybe switching to Harris Products, obviously a lot of metals exposure there with copper, silver, and a lot of that has driven some volatility or some noise in the results. If we peel back the onion and peel that back a little bit, how do you think about the underlying growth algorithm for that segment? What are the key drivers? I think sometimes, again, all that noise makes it a little bit harder for us to understand what is the underlying algorithm, and that would be helpful.
Yeah. So long term, think about the Harris segment as like a mid-single digit type of organic growth. Made a lot of progress, as you've seen, in the EBIT profile of the business.
In fact, we have commented on, do not expect a 20% EBIT profile that we saw in the first half of the year progressively because the kind of leverage we got with the price cost dynamic with silver and copper gave us a lot of SG&A leverage. We see the business model more in that 18%-19% type range currently. We have talked about short term. Long term, our objectives in EBIT are to be 18%-21%, so we are well on our way. Just expect a continuation of growth across HVAC.
About 60% now of the Harris segment is driven by HVAC, and think about HVAC split between residential and commercial. Starting to see some levels of growth, by the way, I have mentioned that, so that is a good thing. Just seeing the continued discipline across shaping the operating model. I mentioned Spotlight, for example. Spotlight we initiated at Harris a couple of years back. Nice EBIT contributions. That is what gives us the confidence to think about that strategy across the rest of our business, so we are doing that. The Harris team has just done a great job in driving the kind of improvements there. In the meanwhile, on the retail side, we captured a significant player in the channel last year, second quarter. We anniversaried that this past second quarter, a little bit into this third quarter.
We are very excited about how we are positioned in the retail channel. Just be watchful about consumer activity. Obviously, the dynamics in the markets and driving consumer decision points for investing and buying have an impact on the retail side. But we are very well, as you know, a market leading position in welding in the retail channel.
Yeah. Maybe if we could dive a little bit deeper into that HVAC piece. To your point, I think you have residential and the commercial side kind of 50/50. But that also starts to bring you a little bit more into the data center side, right? Maybe first, could you just give us an update of what you are seeing in the residential HVAC, and then also quickly, what is the opportunity set on the commercial HVAC front? What are you hearing there?
Yeah. We are starting to see improving volumes. We had expected to see improving volumes
In [HVAC] ?
In HVAC broadly.
Okay.
Broadly. Then started to see some already in the third quarter, easier comps in the fourth quarter. We estimate when you think about data center potential, we look at Harris as between mid to high single digits exposure in data centers. So that has been a very nice growth trajectory for us.
Consolidated basis, less than 5%, so don't think about this as a big driver consolidated-wise. Although we have pockets of serving data centers in automation or in our core welding business. But within Harris, some of the components, fabricated parts, are serving directly data centers. And we believe that we have a position in the market greater than 10%. A lot of the OEMs have their own parts supply for chillers and that, but our positioning is very nicely postured for growth. So we expect data center contributions will continue as the market continues to shape the kind of investment that you're seeing, as we all see in data centers.
You talked about, I think, 5% just coming from Harris, right?
Large, yeah.
Can you elaborate on what are the other areas of your business that ultimately touch on, and what's the consolidated total opportunity?
Yeah. So less than 5% consolidated. For Harris, think about mid to high single digits.
Yeah.
Okay? Think about automation solutions. So let's say there's facility requirements for producing components for serving data centers. We see an automation solution there working its way through. A lot of indirect type of needs that are serving either construction equipment or structural fabrication, you see solutions there. So it's a lot of indirect investment tied to data center activities. But how we've captured it, best we can on a direct basis, about less than 5% consolidated.
Do you see any pockets of the products that you make where you could ultimately make correct investments, or investments that get you more direct exposure or ways to play into data centers?
We've seen it largely in the Harris segment.
Okay.
We are making investments to support the kind of growth progressively in supporting the data center investment, but mostly on the Harris side.
Okay
On a direct basis.
Maybe just sticking with that, with the last few minutes around capital allocation. I think you touched on earlier some bolt-ons or technology, different ways, again, you can ultimately invest inorganically. That is also kind of another core pillar of RISE strategy, right? Continuing to do inorganic investments. Can you help us understand the nature of the pipeline, the mix of where is there perhaps more opportunity, where businesses that are maybe more coming your way, or a bigger focus for you?
Inorganic growth, key part of our strategy for a long period of time, right? For the last 10 years, our CAGR on sales has been 480 basis points. Our objectives in our RISE strategy are at least at 2023 targets at 300-400 basis points of growth, sales growth, CAGR, from acquisitions. Very active part of what we do every day. We have a center-led corporate function that is working alongside our business unit leaders in navigating opportunities. Over the last five years, we have done 10 deals, five within automation and five outside of automation, and that is really spread out in the international and the Americas segment. It is an inherent part of our strategic focus of how we are going to drive growth. Deploying capital, broad-based with a center-led focus across our business units.
I think as part of that, I remember in your last investor day, I feel like there was, it felt like a little bit of a broader, I do not know, funnel that you were looking at or other opportunities. I do not know if it is a little bit of the international side. Again, there had been so much focus on automation for a while. Where has there been any shifts in terms of incremental opportunities? Is it international? Is it other particular technologies or investments around Harris? Where has there been any kind of strategic opportunity that has changed?
Yeah, I would not call it a shift. I would call it a broad-based focus in looking at opportunities of bolt-on businesses that enhance positioning in our strategy. The Weartech acquisition that we completed last year, that is in an international market in Australia. We did a mobile power acquisition in the Americas that extended out some of the technology capabilities of our own business. Our business unit leaders are actively navigating opportunities, working with our corporate function to see if it makes sense for us. We are very disciplined. We get a board level of engagement every meeting in navigating what the opportunities look like, what the pipeline looks like. But very much focused on that 300-400 basis points of growth in a very disciplined way, the kind of expectation of margin contribution and returns.
Then maybe just to round it all out, how do you think about the hurdle or the puts and takes of that versus buying back your own stock or returning cash to shareholders?
Very much we prioritize growth. I mean, the higher returning opportunities for our shareholders' investors start with growth. We have more than doubled our internal investments and looking for opportunities for driving efficiency or quality or safety or capacity. Internal investment is pretty important for us. Then inorganic growth. We want to make sure we are deploying capital for growth. We have been very consistent in increasing the dividend rate for the last 30 + years, as we have been registered on Nasdaq. Then we return any excess cash to shareholders, and we want to make sure we cover maintenance.
Okay.
You can see how the range of share repurchases have averaged throughout the years, $150 million-$300 million type of range. It's opportunistic in deploying excess strategic class for share repurchase.
Perfect. Well, okay. That's a perfect place to wrap it up. Again, thank you so much for your time.
Well, thank you very much, Angel.
Thank you.