Worthington Enterprises Q3 FY2026 Earnings Call - 24% Revenue Surge, 14% Organic Growth and Multi-Year Data Center Upside

Regina, Conference Call Operator: Good morning and welcome to the Worthington Enterprises third quarter fiscal 2026 earnings conference call. All participants will be able to listen only until the question and answer session of the call. This conference is being recorded at the request of Worthington Enterprises. If anyone objects, you may disconnect at this time. I’d now like to introduce Marcus Rogier, Treasurer and Investor Relations Officer. Mr. Rogier, you may begin.

Marcus Rogier, Treasurer and Investor Relations Officer, Worthington Enterprises: Thank you, Regina. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for Worthington Enterprises’ third quarter fiscal 2026 earnings call. On the call today are Joseph Hayek, our President and Chief Executive Officer, and Colin Souza, our Chief Financial Officer. Before we begin, I’d like to remind everyone that certain statements made during today’s call are forward-looking in nature and subject to risk and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied. For more information on these risks and uncertainties, please refer to our earnings release issued yesterday after the market close, which is available on the investor relations section of our website. Additionally, our remarks today will include references to non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations of these financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures can also be found in the earnings release.

Today’s call is being recorded and a replay will be available later on our website at worthingtonenterprises.com. With that, I’ll turn the call over to Joe for opening remarks.

Joseph Hayek, President and Chief Executive Officer, Worthington Enterprises: Thank you, Marcus. Good morning, everybody. Welcome to Worthington Enterprises fiscal 2026 third quarter earnings call. We performed very well in Q3 and generated strong earnings growth, which is a reflection of the tremendous effort that our team exhibits every day. Our colleagues all over the world continue putting our customers first, and our solutions and approach are resonating, helping us to grow. In Q3, in market conditions that continued to be mixed, we delivered strong year-over-year growth in revenue, adjusted EBITDA and earnings per share. Our revenue in Q3 was up over 24% from last year, while our SG&A expenditures declined by 70 basis points as a percentage of sales.

Our Adjusted EBITDA grew by 15% year-over-year, and in the last 12 months, our Adjusted EBITDA is now $297 million, up $54 million from a year ago, and our Adjusted EBITDA margin is 22.4%. This growth is driven by our teams as they optimize and grow our business by developing and launching new products, expanding production capacity in key value streams, providing excellent customer service and strategic acquisitions. We believe we are very well positioned to capitalize on our strengths and continue to grow our market share as the markets improve. Q3 is a great example of how we leverage the Worthington Business System and how it shows up in our financial performance.

As we grow our top line and profitability, we’re leveraging the WBS and its three growth drivers: innovation, transformation, and M&A to maximize both our near and long-term success. Innovation is a big part of our growth strategy. Our ASME water tanks used for liquid cooling in data centers are a great example. Our pipeline is rapidly growing as data centers increasingly utilize liquid cooling solutions. In addition, innovation and new products have led to new store placements for Balloon Time, driving growth in our consumer business. Transformation has been a cornerstone of our operating strategy for some time. As new technologies emerge and we conceptualize and implement new tools that help transform our business, we’re always focused not on how we did things yesterday, but on how we can do them better or more efficiently tomorrow.

Our 80/20 initiative is a good example of that thinking, and we’re very happy with our progress to date and excited about how we can continue to leverage that discipline. AI is now embedded across many of our applications, and our focus is shifting from experimentation to operational impact, deploying AI in specific workflows where it can drive measurable efficiencies, not just individual productivity gains. We also continue investing in automation as we gain efficiencies and create elevated opportunities for our colleagues. We’re focused on acquiring companies in niche markets with sustainable competitive advantages. In January, we completed our acquisition of LSI. LSI is a leading U.S. manufacturer of standing seam metal roofing clips, components, and retrofit systems that enhances our position in engineered building systems. LSI’s products are engineered into OEM-certified roof systems, creating meaningful requalification requirements and high switching costs.

We’re very happy the LSI team is now a part of Worthington. Our integration efforts are off to a good start, and we’re excited about the growth prospects that we have together. At the core of the WBS and at the core of Worthington is our culture and our philosophy. Our company was founded and grew up embracing the notion that people are our most important asset. Today, as visibly as ever, our people power our success. Part of our opportunity and our obligation as a U.S. manufacturer is to invest in and develop the workforce of the future. This year, we launched our largest career accelerator program to date, where high school seniors spend 10 weeks developing career readiness on the shop floor and in the classroom.

When these young men and women complete the program, they’ll have a certified manufacturing associate credential and a full-time job offer from us. Our teams do not seek recognition for its own sake, but it is gratifying when we are recognized by others. For instance, Newsweek recently named us one of America’s Greatest Workplaces for Culture, Belonging, and Community for 2026. We’re also named one of the world’s most productive companies by LNS Research. While these awards do not independently drive our success, they reflect a group of talented individuals and teams doing things well and the right way. Teams like that are the kind you build around and that make you proud to come to work every day. Global events seem to be unfolding daily, and consequently, the economic growth forecasts are cloudy. We believe our value propositions continue to improve and resonate with our customers.

The demand in our end markets is steady and will grow as market conditions improve. Our strategies are solid, and we’re executing well. As we approach the end of our fiscal year, we believe we’re very well-positioned to continue growing Worthington Enterprises and creating meaningful value for all of our stakeholders. I will now turn it over to Colin, who will take you through some details related to our financial performance in the quarter.

Colin Souza, Chief Financial Officer, Worthington Enterprises: Thank you, Joe, and good morning, everyone. We delivered strong financial results in Q3, recording GAAP earnings of $0.92 per share, compared to $0.79 per share in the prior year period. The current quarter included $0.06 per share of restructuring and other non-recurring items, primarily related to acquisition costs and the non-cash amortization of a portion of the inventory step-up associated with our recent acquisition of LSI. The prior year quarter included $0.12 per share of restructuring and other expenses. Excluding these items in both periods, adjusted earnings were $0.98 per share, up from $0.91 in the prior year quarter and marking our sixth consecutive quarter of year-over-year growth in adjusted EPS and adjusted EBITDA. Consolidated net sales for the quarter were $379 million, up 24% compared to $305 million in the prior year quarter.

The increase was driven by higher overall volumes in both building and consumer products, combined with the impact of recent acquisitions, which contributed $32 million in net sales for Q3. Excluding the impact of acquisitions, net sales increased $42 million or 14% over the prior year quarter. Gross profit increased to $109 million from $89 million in the prior year quarter. Gross margin was 28.9% compared to 29.3% a year ago, with the modest contraction primarily reflecting the purchase accounting impact of the inventory step up at LSI. Adjusted EBITDA increased to $85 million from $74 million in the prior year quarter, with an adjusted EBITDA margin of 22.3%.

On a trailing twelve-month basis, Adjusted EBITDA increased $54 million or 22% to $297 million compared to $243 million in the prior year TTM period. This performance reflects the strength of our differentiated portfolio and the positive impact of the Worthington Business System, supporting improved operating discipline and sustainable earnings growth, both organically and through acquisitions. Turning to our cash flow and capital allocation, our focus remains funding growth through acquisitions and reinvesting in our business while returning excess cash to shareholders via dividends and share repurchases. Capital expenditures totaled $14 million in the quarter, including $4 million related to our facility modernization project in consumer products. We returned capital to shareholders through $9 million in dividends in the repurchase of 100,000 shares of our common stock.

Our joint ventures continued to deliver strong cash generation, providing $35 million in dividends during the quarter, representing 113% of equity income. Operating cash flow was $62 million in the quarter, and free cash flow was $48 million. On a trailing twelve-month basis, free cash flow is now $164 million, representing a 95% free cash flow conversion rate relative to adjusted net earnings. Our free cash flow reflects elevated capital expenditures associated with our facility modernization projects, which totaled roughly $27 million over the TTM period. We have roughly $25 million of modernization spend remaining. The modernization project is on track and on budget, and we expect to complete it by mid-fiscal year 2027. After this investment is complete, capital expenditures should return to more normalized levels, supporting continued healthy free cash flow conversion over time.

Turning to our balance sheet and liquidity, we closed the quarter with net debt of $306 million, resulting in a net debt to trailing Adjusted EBITDA ratio of approximately 1x. Our leverage remains conservative, and we maintain ample liquidity with $495 million of availability under our revolving credit facility at quarter end, providing significant financial flexibility. Yesterday, our board of directors declared a quarterly dividend of $0.19 per share, payable in June 2026. Let me now turn to our segment performance. Building Products delivered another solid quarter, reflecting the quality of our business and the efforts of our teams. We were pleased to close the LSI acquisition in mid-January, expanding our offering in the building envelope, and are excited to welcome LSI’s team to Worthington.

Q3 net sales grew 36% year-over-year to $224 million, up from $165 million in the prior year quarter. Growth was driven by higher overall volumes and contributions from acquisitions, which contributed $32 million in net sales. Excluding acquisitions, net sales increased 16% year-over-year, reflecting strong organic growth across multiple value streams, in particular our water and cooling construction businesses. Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was $59 million compared to $53 million in the prior year quarter, with an adjusted EBITDA margin of 26.3%. The $6 million increase was driven by improved performance in our wholly owned businesses, including approximately $5 million from recent acquisitions, partially offset by lower combined equity earnings from our joint ventures.

WAVE continued to perform well, delivering year-over-year growth and contributing $27 million in equity earnings. While ClarkDietrich’s results were lower year-over-year in a challenging non-residential construction environment, ClarkDietrich contributed $6 million compared to $9 million last year and improved modestly sequentially from Q2. Our integration plans for Elgen and LSI are on track, and the building products team remains well-positioned to continue to deliver value as we move forward. Consumer products achieved strong sales and earnings growth in the quarter, driven by the strength of our brands, disciplined execution, and continued demand across key categories. Net sales in Q3 were $155 million, up 11% over the prior year quarter, driven by improved volumes and higher average selling prices. Balloon Time continues to perform well, showing its agility with expanded retail placement paired with innovations like the Balloon Time Mini.

Adjusted EBITDA increased to $35 million from $29 million in Q3 a year ago, with margins expanding to 22.9% from 20.5%. The consumer team is poised to continue delivering value-added solutions that strengthen our customer relationships and position the business for sustainable growth moving forward. We delivered strong financial results in Q3. Our differentiated product solutions and disciplined execution, leveraging the Worthington Business System, are driving stronger operations, solid cash flow and returns, and resilient earnings growth, both organically and through acquisitions. At this point, we’re happy to take any questions.

Regina, Conference Call Operator: Our first question will come from the line of Daniel Moore with CJS Securities. Please go ahead.

Will, Analyst, CJS Securities: Good morning. This is Will on for Dan.

Colin Souza, Chief Financial Officer, Worthington Enterprises: Hey, Will. Morning, Will.

Will, Analyst, CJS Securities: Morning. 14% organic revenue growth in the quarter, very strong. Can you talk about volume versus price? Was price much of a factor for either building products or consumer products?

Colin Souza, Chief Financial Officer, Worthington Enterprises: Yeah, good question, Will. We’re very pleased on the organic growth rate overall, 14%, organic, which you mentioned. You know, Building Products was up 16% organically. That’s the second quarter in a row. Building Products is up 16% organically. Consumer was up 11%. It was a mix of different factors there across the different value streams. You know, volume played a key role. Pricing played a role as well there. You know, overall, we continue to think about you know where we’re heading organically in terms of the margins. We’re trying to get to 30%, and we’ve been in the high twenties over the past couple quarters. You know, we continue to try to make progress toward that 30% gross margin range.

Just as important is making sure we control our SG&A and getting that below 20% as a percent of sales. A number of value streams, you know, were up from a volume, and then some were up from a pricing standpoint. I talked about in consumer products, just volume and higher average selling prices. The pricing factor was there more than others.

Joseph Hayek, President and Chief Executive Officer, Worthington Enterprises: Yeah. Will, it’s Joe. The only thing I would add is that, you know, volumes are definitely increasing and as Colin Souza mentioned, there are some pricing dynamics in there as well. What sometimes gets lost is the benefits from the new products and NPD that we’re seeing in the organic growth side. We talked about Balloon Time. You know, their store count’s up 64% from a year ago. They’re in 55,000 stores. That’s driving a lot of growth. We talked about the ASME tanks in data centers. You know, that’s just not us raising price. We’re having more volume of the same thing.

That’s having new products that are available to either, you know, defend our existing businesses, to increase the moat around our businesses, or candidly, to appeal to new customers, and we’re having success with all three, which makes us pretty happy and pretty optimistic about the future.

Will, Analyst, CJS Securities: Thank you. That’s super helpful. Looking forward, can you add some color on the type of organic growth you’re expecting to generate in Q4 and over the next few quarters? If you could break it out by building products and consumer products in the JVs? Thank you.

Colin Souza, Chief Financial Officer, Worthington Enterprises: Yeah, that sounds suspiciously like giving guidance, Will. We’re not gonna be able to do that. We do believe that a lot of the sort of trends that we have been seeing will continue. You know, we’re always mindful in our businesses that there are pockets of strength

Joseph Hayek, President and Chief Executive Officer, Worthington Enterprises: One of the things that really makes us feel good about our business is that we do have businesses and end markets that are influenced by different things. You know, we’re not over-indexed to a certain vertical or a certain industry. Yeah, we’ll continue to drive organic growth as we optimize and grow the business, and we’re certainly always looking for opportunities to grow through acquisitions as well.

Steven Ramsey, Analyst, Thompson Research Group: Thank you.

Joseph Hayek, President and Chief Executive Officer, Worthington Enterprises: Sure.

Regina, Conference Call Operator: Our next question will come from the line of Brian Biros with Thompson Research Group. Please go ahead.

Steven Ramsey, Analyst, Thompson Research Group: Good morning. This is Steven Ramsey on for Brian. To comment on the tank business in the data center, certainly an interesting topic and one that our channel checks point to a stunningly bright picture for this segment over the next year or two at least. I’m curious on two fronts there. Number one, how the pipeline is forming and your visibility into that demand for new data centers. Secondly, is there much opportunity now or that’s coming in the retrofit side of existing data centers?

Joseph Hayek, President and Chief Executive Officer, Worthington Enterprises: Steven, it’s Joe. Great question. You know, for a lot of our value streams, data centers are an important and a growing end market. You know, WAVE, ClarkDietrich, Elgen, LSI, and Amtrol, which is our water business, you know, to name a few. But specifically on that water side, on the ASME side of the business, the ASME cooling tanks that we provide are gaining significant traction as data centers increasingly embrace liquid cooling, and there are lots of things from chipsets and things like that that are driving that dynamic. You know, for us, you know, our business this year will probably triple. Importantly next year, we see additional incremental growth. We honestly don’t think it’s a year or two. We think it’s several years.

We also don’t think it’s all coming at once because when you look at the announced data centers and the announced changes, there is a lag between those announcements and then when things get built and certainly when our solutions become, you know, part of the overall construction project. Visibility-wise, you know, we continue investing in people and process and engineering capabilities. We feel really good about that business for the foreseeable future. You know, it’s not just in the tank side of the business. You know, I mentioned we have lots of other businesses that are benefiting from exposure and solutions going to data center. You know, we also don’t wanna over-index to data centers either.

It’s not like this is half of our revenue, but it is growing, and we feel really good about it and we feel good about the investments that we have made that have led to our success thus far and that we’re continuing to make.

Steven Ramsey, Analyst, Thompson Research Group: That’s great color. It all makes sense. Maybe a follow-on question on the same topic. How do you feel about your capacity producing all the various products that go into data centers? How do you think about managing that capacity given the outlook for multiple years is so bright?

Joseph Hayek, President and Chief Executive Officer, Worthington Enterprises: Yeah, that’s a great question, and certainly we’re not the only company that needs to sort that out, that the entire supply chain and ecosystem around data centers, you know, continues to be pretty dynamic. You know, from our perspective, we continue to feel like we have capacity, and we can grow, and we have the ability to continue to think about the best ways to make sure that we are engineering these products and getting them into the hands of our customers on an efficient basis.

Steven Ramsey, Analyst, Thompson Research Group: Okay. That’s helpful. Last quick one from me. One of the topics from the recent war issues is helium shortages. I’m curious if this is any impact for you guys.

Joseph Hayek, President and Chief Executive Officer, Worthington Enterprises: Yeah. I think that is a great question. In the near term, as a, you know, domestic sort of supplier of what we do, our sources of helium are also domestic, and so never say never, but for right now, I think we’re in good shape.

Steven Ramsey, Analyst, Thompson Research Group: Okay. That’s great. Thank you.

Regina, Conference Call Operator: Our next question will come from the line of Walter Liptak with Seaport Research Partners. Please go ahead.

Walter Liptak, Analyst, Seaport Research Partners: Hi. Thanks. Good morning, and great quarter, guys. I wanted to ask about.

Joseph Hayek, President and Chief Executive Officer, Worthington Enterprises: Thanks, Walt. Good morning, Walt.

I wanted to do some follow-ons to the data center question that was just asked. You ran through a couple of businesses, WAVE, LSI, Amtrol, and I think there might have been another one that have exposure to data center. I wonder if you could, you know, maybe talk about them collectively, you know, how much, you know, how much revenue is there today, what’s the growth rate on all of those, and what do you think your best opportunity is, you know, from those multiple, you know, spots where you can go after data center projects? Hey, Walt. You know, as Joe mentioned, we play in a number of different verticals, different businesses to support the growth there.

Colin Souza, Chief Financial Officer, Worthington Enterprises: with WAVE, it’s more of the structural grid and then containment. You know, they have really solid teams in place and capabilities to capture the, you know, demand that they’re seeing there, which is

You know, fast, and growing, and feeling really good about that. ClarkDietrich, more on the structural side, the products that they provide, they’re seeing increased volume there, and they’re able to capture that, and feel really good there. On Elgen, we’ve talked about it with, you know, HVAC components and then strut products. You know, they’ve seen big increases in their demand over the past couple years related to data centers. And then on LSI, the metal roofing clips. So they’re all, you know, growing quickly within each of these businesses. I mentioned last quarter, you know, it’s less than 10% of each of these businesses individually, but, in all cases, it’s the fastest-growing area of these businesses. So, you know, would expect that to, you know, continue moving forward based on what we can see.

Each of these businesses in different ways, they’re either making, you know, small investments in just resources to help capture the demand, and in some cases, small investments in equipment to make sure we can capitalize on the solutions that these, you know, data centers need. Joe talked about our water business with Amtrol, and we’re excited about that opportunity. Our teams are just setting up their strategies to make sure we can capitalize on this moving forward. We feel really good about that and touches a number of businesses, and the teams are focused there for sure.

Walter Liptak, Analyst, Seaport Research Partners: Okay, great. I’ll change gears here and go into you know maybe just one you know during the quarter we had the situation in the Middle East change with U.S./Iran. It didn’t seem like it had much of an impact that was negative because the results were really good, especially the organic growth. Did you see any customer behaviors change in February, March? You know, how are things trending you know towards the end of March?

Colin Souza, Chief Financial Officer, Worthington Enterprises: Sure. Yeah, Middle East specifically. Well, you know, things were pretty fluid at the end of last week. Things looked a certain way, and this week they look a bit more optimistic from the standpoint of, you know, getting the Strait of Hormuz open and getting goods and oil flowing to the world. It’s a little difficult to forecast any tangible impacts that a prolonged closure would have beyond the obvious, which is that interruptions of global shipping are inflationary. That just is what it is. Specifically, energy costs are up, including oil, diesel, natural gas, other derivatives. That’s true globally. You know, this will have an impact on everybody, whether it’s trucking, ocean freight or anything else. You know, there are other inputs that come out of the Middle East. Those will be impacted.

Specifically to us, our European LPG business has some customers in the Middle East, and right now we’re unable to ship to those customers. We’re certainly hopeful that the situation gets resolved sometime in the near future. I would say, first of all, you know, we’re not at all over-indexed to the Gulf or oil prices generally, since we’re predominantly a U.S. manufacturer. We will take steps to mitigate, you know, potential headwinds or price increases with fuel, if or as they present themselves to us.

Walter Liptak, Analyst, Seaport Research Partners: Okay, great. Then kind of along those same lines, in the consumer products segment, they had a really nice quarter. I wonder if you could talk about inventories, market share. You talked already about the selling price increases, but it seems. Did they take their inventories down too low and they’re just bringing them back up to a normal level? You mentioned Balloon Time market share gains. Are there other market share gains as a U.S. manufacturer that’s helping the organic revenue?

Colin Souza, Chief Financial Officer, Worthington Enterprises: Yeah. Well, as you said, consumer had a fantastic quarter. They were up 11%, you know, growth organically and a number of factors there. You know, the celebrations business, our Balloon Time business, volume was up there as we’ve continued to gain share, gain new placements and layer on innovation. A lot of initiatives working well there and compounding on each other for good results on the celebrations category. You know, our outdoor business, you know, volumes were up and we were able to capitalize on demand there. The tools businesses continue to perform okay, you know, not up significantly, not down significantly. We talked about some of the demand drivers within kind of repair and remodel activity that are key factors there.

You know, margins for consumer, they were up 240 basis points year-over-year versus the prior year quarter. That was factors I mentioned, higher volumes, improved pricing, favorable mix, and you know, a really good Q3 overall. You know, Q3 and Q4 are our seasonally strongest quarters in consumer products. We don’t see any sign of overstocking from an inventory perspective at our retailers. So feel good about just the demand dynamics there and in things to come, and Q3 being our strongest quarter typically.

Walter Liptak, Analyst, Seaport Research Partners: Okay, great. Okay, thanks much.

Regina, Conference Call Operator: Next question will come from the line of Susan Maklari with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.

Susan Maklari, Analyst, Goldman Sachs: Thank you. Good morning, everyone.

Joseph Hayek, President and Chief Executive Officer, Worthington Enterprises: Hey, good morning, Susan.

Susan Maklari, Analyst, Goldman Sachs: Good morning. Can you hear me okay?

Joseph Hayek, President and Chief Executive Officer, Worthington Enterprises: Yes.

Susan Maklari, Analyst, Goldman Sachs: Can you hear me? Okay. Okay, perfect. I wanted to talk a bit about the state of the consumer. With everything that’s happened and going on in the world, have you seen any change as you think about the spring and just how you’re thinking about inventories and positioning, especially around the new products and a lot of that momentum that you’re seeing?

Joseph Hayek, President and Chief Executive Officer, Worthington Enterprises: Sure. The state of the consumer generally. You know, for us, consumer, for our consumer business, you know, we’re not broadly correlated with overall consumer trends that a lot of people focus on. Many of our consumer products are actually geared towards contractors or for professionals, and in those value streams, the demand is actually more akin to what you might see in building products, which is stable, steady conditions with a little bit of growth. You know, in the more traditional consumer-focused value streams, our products are a lot of times used to elevate the experiences that people are having as they replace more expensive experiences. Our demand tends to be a bit more resilient than in other categories that you might see in consumer. From an inventory perspective, we’re relatively steady.

We approached the winter season with camping gas in a pretty good spot, and we partnered really well with our retail customers and, you know, they exited 2, 3 in a pretty good spot, and we don’t believe that they’re kind of over-indexed or that the channel is overly full. You know, the one other dynamic, Susan, I’d point out is that we do continue to benefit from the innovation engine. You know, we have opened new doors in gaining shares. We’ve talked about the things that are happening with Balloon Time.

You know, it’s also true in the tools business, and, you know, overall we’ve got a lot of things that probably won’t launch in the next quarter, but over the next year, we’ve got a number of new products that are also coming to market that we feel pretty good about.

Susan Maklari, Analyst, Goldman Sachs: Yeah. Okay. That’s great color. Can you also talk a bit about the JVs? It seems like obviously with the macro coming through, you’re still seeing some of those pressures in ClarkDietrich. Can you just give us an update on how things are moving there, and also within WAVE, how you’re seeing the dynamics and supply and demand in that part of the business? Anything as it relates to steel versus the pricing that you put through earlier this year?

Joseph Hayek, President and Chief Executive Officer, Worthington Enterprises: Sure. Susan, I think I understood your question. You’re echoing quite a bit, but I think what your question is around the JVs and a lot of the, you know, the dynamics there. So I’ll give it a shot, but if I miss anything that you’re asking about, make sure you remind me. You know, take ClarkDietrich first. You know, it’s a great business. They’re a market leader, but they’re operating in a pretty tough environment. You know, that environment you know will improve over time as market conditions allow. They improved sequentially in Q3. We do expect them to be relatively flattish to that number in Q4.

As we kind of look out and we think about interest rates and uncertainties and the headwinds, this is a time period where the team at ClarkDietrich is operating exceptionally well. They have leaned out their processes. They have learned an awful lot about, you know, how to deal with different challenging environments that their customers are having. I think their customers are feeling better about them than they have in quite a while, and they really prioritize doing business with ClarkDietrich.

We’ve got one more, I think, challenging comp for ClarkDietrich, but thereafter, you know, we expect them to continue to do all the things that they’re doing and they’ll, you know, increasingly contribute to EBITDA growth over the course of the time and certainly getting into fiscal 2027. WAVE, as you know, continues to be a great business with the commercial market having less opportunities to grow, although we are starting to see some green shoots there. We continue to see strength there in data centers and healthcare and education. You know, the verticals, and people talk a lot about data centers and, you know, their data centers generally are representing a lot of the growth that’s available in consumer, I’m sorry, in commercial.

That will ultimately change, so when those markets turn and get better, the entire industry, I think, is poised to grow. You know, they continue to do a fantastic job on their own with MPD. That’s a great management team and a great leadership team and our partner at Armstrong. We’re very happy with WAVE and all the work that continues to go in there. In a relatively flattish demand environment, you know, they continue to do a fantastic job.

Susan Maklari, Analyst, Goldman Sachs: Okay. That’s great color. I’m just gonna squeeze one more in, which is just was there any impact from the weather on building products in the third quarter?

Joseph Hayek, President and Chief Executive Officer, Worthington Enterprises: Again, great question. In Q3, you know, weather is actually a little bit of a mixed bag for us. The cold and the storms that the eastern half of the country experienced, those starting in December, did drive demand for our camping gas and our other heating products. Those are used for emergency and supplemental heat and some cooking fuel in cases of emergency or lost power. At the same time, the cold and the storms caused some delays on construction sites, which has an impact on a number of our businesses. We actually lost several production days in our building product facility in the Northeast and a couple in the Midwest because of those storms. In some cases, you can make up some of that production and shipping with some expensive overtime.

Sometimes you simply lose those days. In a roughly 60-day shipping quarter, those kinds of disruptions aren’t needle-moving by themselves, but they do matter, and they can put some pressure on manufacturing and conversion costs. Overall, I would say that the weather as is seasonally normal was a modest positive for us overall.

Susan Maklari, Analyst, Goldman Sachs: Okay. Thank you. Good luck with the quarter.

Joseph Hayek, President and Chief Executive Officer, Worthington Enterprises: Thanks, Susan.

Regina, Conference Call Operator: Again, to ask a question, simply press star one on your telephone keypad. Our next question is a follow-up from the line of Daniel Moore with CJS Securities. Please go ahead.

Will, Analyst, CJS Securities: Hi, this is Will on again. Just one more follow-up that I don’t think was asked yet. Can you provide maybe more color and update on the LSI acquisition? How is performance and synergy realization tracking relative to expectations?

Joseph Hayek, President and Chief Executive Officer, Worthington Enterprises: Yeah, Will, thanks for the follow-up. Really excited about LSI. You know, we closed it midway through the quarter, so there’s really just about six weeks of results in the quarter. You know, meeting expectations so far. We’re in early days of integration, but really excited about that business. The more we spend time with that team, the more it’s, you know, validating and our conviction, you know, increases for what we can do together. You know, as a reminder, you know, they’re a leading player in commercial metal roofing clips. This was an attractive, you know, niche driven by the reroofing cycle, and, you know, really strong margin profile, and you know, opportunities for us to really, you know, capitalize on coming together and making this business better under our ownership.

really excited about that. Then lastly, the team there is such a good cultural fit, with ours, so, and we enjoy spending time with them and look forward to the things we can do together.

Will, Analyst, CJS Securities: Thank you.

Regina, Conference Call Operator: Our next question will come from the line of Brian McNamara with Canaccord. Please go ahead.

Brian McNamara, Analyst, Canaccord: Hey, good morning, guys. Thanks for taking the question. You know I’m gonna ask about tariffs and tariff advantages. I’m curious where you guys stand in your tariff advantage product relative to peers on a market share basis or however kind of way you want to posit it. I remember last quarter you guys said you needed to hire 40 more people at your plants to kind of meet increased demand for those products. I think that partly drove part of the gross margin degradation last quarter. Where are we as it relates to the kind of tariffs and kind of your perceived advantage there? Thanks.

Joseph Hayek, President and Chief Executive Officer, Worthington Enterprises: Yeah, sure. Brian, good morning. You know, yeah, a lot has changed, but there has not been a lot of resolution around tariffs in the last couple of months. You know, from our perspective, we still think that we’re a net beneficiary of the tariffs that are now put in place. And as you know, in a lot of our value streams, we are the only domestic manufacturer of certain products, and so potential foreign competitors need to navigate the Section 232 tariffs, which was not at issue with the Supreme Court. You know, a level playing field is always a good thing for us.

We believe we have taken market share in multiple value streams, and we did absolutely chat in December about the fact that we have added some manufacturing colleagues to meet demand in those businesses. We continue to feel like, you know, our solutions are resonating and that the competitive dynamic is such that we have the opportunity to compete on the merits and the value that we bring to our customers, and that makes us feel really good. We’ve talked about this, but we do have some tariff impacts that are negative to us, whether it’s, you know, commodity costs or certainly in the consumer business, the products that are manufactured overseas. There’s the three mitigants that we always leverage are asking our suppliers to partner with us and offset some of those additional costs.

You know, we continue to try and leverage tools and take costs out of our own supply chains everywhere we can. Then, if we need to, we contemplate pricing actions. We do feel like we’re where we need to be in all three of those areas right now. You think about aluminum and brass, there’s also been talk of these various potential refunds and things like that. We actually don’t think that those are gonna happen anytime soon. It’s just me personally, I’m not sure that the government’s gonna readily suggest that they want to give, you know, $200 billion back.

There have been some states or some companies that have actually, you know, filed suits, but from that IEEPA dynamic, you know, we’re gonna wait and see how that plays out. We continue to think about our business and what we can control, and our teams are doing a phenomenal job there. Actually, Brian, if you think about it for a second, when we talk about our strategy and action. You know, there are a few numbers that might help to tell the story.

You know, in the nine months ended in Q3, you know, we’ve grown our top line by $175 million, in between increases in our gross margin and a decrease in our SG&A as a % of sales in that same nine-month period. You know, our adjusted EBITDA margin is up 220 basis points in the wholly owned businesses. You’ve got a little bit of a decline contribution from the JVs. But overall, you know, I think that’s it. If you think about what our strategy really is, which is to optimize and grow our businesses, and to keep our SG&A flat as we grow, as Colin mentioned, you know, that’s what we’re seeing.

Back to your tariff question, the environment that we’re in. We believe it’s steady and it’s likely to continue this way unless something unforeseen and you know, look, there’s a lot going on in the world. But based on what we can see right now, we think steady as she goes from a demand perspective with some green shoots in some places. It makes us pretty optimistic.

Brian McNamara, Analyst, Canaccord: Great. That’s really helpful. I appreciate the color on the data centers. It’s becoming a bigger topic for you guys and obviously the market in general. I think when you guys split, it was a pretty small part of your business. I was hoping you guys could contextualize kinda where you are. I understand if you don’t wanna quantify per se. I think Colin mentioned it’s less than 10% of some of your business lines. But, like, how big is it today on a qualitative or quantitative basis? How big do you think it can get over, you know, the next couple of years?

Colin Souza, Chief Financial Officer, Worthington Enterprises: Yeah. Brian, I’ll start there and appreciate the question. I mean, I think all we can say there is it’s you know, helping grow a number of our businesses and offsetting you know, some softness in other markets. We’re doing our best to develop strategies to support this demand. You know, it’s unique in each of these value streams. I mentioned earlier, whether it’s people or equipment or capabilities or partners, you know, we are leveraging all of those tools to develop the best solutions to capture this demand. It is a focus of ours, you know, because we see the growth opportunity. But to Joe’s point, we’re not over-indexed to it by any means.

We’re trying to be smart about, you know, how we spend our time and resources. It is an opportunity to capture more incremental growth for us. You know, if you know, if things play out as we expect, you know, the percentage share across these businesses will increase to data centers as we move forward. You know, that’s the best way we could characterize it, you know, on top of what Joe shared specifically about our water business.

Joseph Hayek, President and Chief Executive Officer, Worthington Enterprises: Brian, I mean, Colin did a really nice job of kinda trying to frame size-wise what this is for us. I do think it’ll be bigger a year from now than it is right now. We have made investments. You know, our solutions are resonating, and we are developing. You know, in some places right these are buildings, and buildings need certain things. In other environments these are very purpose-built buildings that need very specific things. Our solutions have been customized in a lot of cases. The other thing that people sometimes you know focus a lot on data centers, but you know data centers are in fact representing a lot of commercial construction.

As commercial construction improves, generally speaking, right, volumes in a lot of these spaces will go up because, you know, commercial conditions normalize and you still have the data center growth that really we expect to continue for, you know, 5+ years. That’ll—I think that’ll add a lot of, you know, specific activity around construction and retrofit.

Regina, Conference Call Operator: This concludes our question and answer session. I will now turn the call back over to Joseph Hayek for closing comments.

Joseph Hayek, President and Chief Executive Officer, Worthington Enterprises: Thanks, everybody, for joining us this morning. We appreciate your time. Have a great week. We look forward to speaking with everybody again soon.

Regina, Conference Call Operator: This concludes today’s conference call. Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect.