Q1 2025 Hillenbrand Inc Earnings Call

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07-02-2025

Sam Mynsberge; VP of Investor Relations; Hillenbrand Inc
Kimberly Ryan-Dennis; President, Chief Executive Officer, Director; Hillenbrand Inc
Robert VanHimbergen; Chief Financial Officer, Senior Vice President; Hillenbrand Inc
Daniel Moore
Mitchell Moore
Operator
Greetings and welcome to the Hillenbrand first quarter and full year 2025 earnings call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce Sam Mynsberge Vice President, Investor Relations. Thank you. You may begin.
Sam Mynsberge
Thank you, operator and good morning, everyone. Welcome to Hillenbrand's conference call where we will be discussing our fiscal first quarter performance as well as the sale of a majority stake in our Milacron injection molding and extrusion business within the molding technology solutions or MTF segment that we announced in an eight K and our earnings release yesterday afternoon. I'm joined by our President and CEO Kim Ryan and our Senior Vice President and CFO Bob VanHimbergen. I'd like to direct your attention to the supplemental slides posted on our IR website that will be referenced on today's call. Turning to slide 3. Please note that our comments may contain certain forward-looking statements that are subject to the safe harbor provisions of the securities laws. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and our actual results could differ materially. Also during the course of this call, our discussion of results will exclude any prior or impact from the discontinued operations of Batesville as well as certain non-GAAP operating performance measures. The Q1 results we'll be discussing today include Milacron on both a consolidated basis and within our MTs segment, Bob will discuss the impact of the transaction our future reported results later in the call, I encourage you to review the appendix and slide 3 of the presentation as well as our 10-Q which can be found on our website for a deeper discussion of non-GAAP information for looking statements and the risk factors that could impact our actual results with that. I'll turn the call over to Kim.
Kimberly Ryan-Dennis
Thank you, SAM and Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us on today's call. Before we jump into the quarterly results. I'd like to provide an update on the portfolio announcement we made yesterday after market close. Following an in-depth portfolio review, we've reached an agreement to sell approximately 51% of our Milacron injection molding and extrusion business to an affiliate of Bain Capital for $287 million, while we retain approximately 49% ownership. This transaction reflects the continuation of Hillenbrand's transformation as we significantly reshaped our portfolio towards being a higher margin, higher growth, less cyclical portfolio of industrial leaders in highly engineered processing equipment and systems. As you know, we began this transformation journey a little over three years ago. And over that time, we divested our secularly declining death care segment and completed several strategic acquisitions that increased our scale in the attractive food health and nutrition and markets. Now, we're representing just shy of 30% of our total revenue mix on a pro forma basis. We are confident this transaction will deliver value to Hillenbrand and its shareholders as well as the Milacron team bank capital has a proven track record of successful corporate partnerships and will provide greater focus and resources to help Milacron drive future growth and success for its associates and customers. The transaction will enable Hillenbrand to maximize shareholder value by concentrating our resources on growing our core business accelerating our commitment to deleverage, enhancing our margin profile and reducing our cyclicality. Additionally, by retaining an ownership stake, we maintain a potential for future returns from the Milacron business which we believe has many opportunities under this new structure, Bob will provide additional details regarding the transaction a bit later in the call. Now touching on our Q1 performance as expected, this quarter was characterized by continuing uncertainty around inflation, interest rates and government policy. Despite these persistent pressures, our performance reflects the hard work and dedication of our associates. I'm proud of their determination and focus as they delivered revenue and adjusted earnings per share in line with our expectations as anticipated overall order volumes were relatively soft, largely driven by lower capital equipment demand related to plastics projects partially offset by strong order performance within our food health and nutrition portfolio. In our advanced process solutions or APS segment, our customer quote pipelines remain robust across the enterprise test lab utilization continued to be high and aftermarket orders in APS reached a new record level. Consolidated revenue in the quarter was $707 million. Down 9% year-over-year and adjusted earnings per share of $0.56 was down 19%. But as mentioned, this was in line with our expectations due to the lower starting backlog coming into the quarter. I'll now provide a little more color on the dynamics we are seeing across our segments starting with polymers and performance materials. In APS we remain a market leader for high quality high output feeding extrusion and material handling solutions used in the production of base resins, engineering, plastics, recycled materials and other specialty chemicals. We strongly believe in the underlying secular trends that support long term demand in these markets. A growing global middle class, increasing focus on efficient and sustainable solutions and the evolving global supply chain as investment in China returns to more normalized levels. After significant wave which benefited us in recent years, future capital investment opportunities remain strong in India and the Middle East. These regions continue to be attractive for growth and our strong geographic footprint with local presence already in place positions us well to capitalize on these opportunities, customer quote pipelines especially in these regions remain healthy. Despite persistent global macro uncertainty, we are closely monitoring the demand environment and have taken prudent cost actions in response to near term volume levels while also ensuring we remain well positioned given our long-term growth outlook. These actions include several facility consolidations which create centers of excellence adding to our flexibility and creating more efficient capacity utilization for the long term in our food health and nutrition or FHN and markets. Within APS we are encouraged by signs of increased demand across all key application areas including baked goods, pet foods, snacks, and cereals, and pharmaceuticals. This growth is supported by broad based geographic strength led by North America. This improving demand environment was exemplified by record orders for our FHN and market in the quarter. I'm tremendously pleased with how our teams have accelerated our integration initiatives as we delivered high teens margins again, this quarter remaining on track to achieve our $30 million run rate cost synergy target by the end of the fiscal year, which is significantly ahead of our initial timeline. Additionally, we are making great strides in cross selling opportunities which we expect to accelerate as market conditions continue to improve and as customers respond positively to the breadth of our highly engineered process technologies, systems engineering capabilities and geographic reach. Finally turning to aftermarket and APS as I mentioned, orders were a record in the quarter, largely driven by the value-added services we provide through our life cycle of our equipment such as large modernization projects. Our FHN Business also continued to build momentum by driving a more proactive approach to aftermarket. As part of our integration efforts, aftermarket revenue in the quarter was negatively impacted by timing due to the large number of modernization projects and the naturally longer duration of these projects which are recognized using percentage of completion accounting. These attractive upgrade projects are an important part of supporting our long-term customer partnerships. Now turning to the MTS segment, I'd highlight that Q1 demand was in line with our expectations reflecting typical seasonality and ongoing market slowness. We continue to see softness in North America particularly in automotive as tariff uncertainty has significantly slowed new investments in that sector. Europe also remains relatively sluggish across most areas but we are observing a trend of improving stability in Asia with solid momentum in India, especially for packaging and consumer goods projects. Looking ahead, we expect the North America and European markets to remain fairly tepid in the near term. As customers wait for more clarity regarding tariffs and inflation. As a reminder, our fiscal Q2 for hot runner product line usually remains relatively consistent with Q1 due to the impact of the Chinese New Year. This is reflected in the Q2 guidance, Bob will cover in a moment. I'll now spend a few moments discussing our perspective on the recent tariff developments. Generally, our production is used to serve demand for the region in which we are producing. In response to COVID. We accelerated our efforts around localization, especially as it relates to China. We have largely mitigated the China tariff impact and continue to identify strategic sourcing opportunities to reduce the direct impact even further while monitoring the dynamic trade policy discussions that remain ongoing for other regions. In summary, our first quarter was in line with our expectations despite ongoing global macroeconomic uncertainty that said I remain extremely confident in our strategy and the long-term catalyst for our business. I'll now turn the call over to Bob to discuss the financials, the transaction, and our outlook in more detail.
Robert VanHimbergen
Thanks Kim and good morning, everyone. As a reminder, the Q1 results I am discussing today still includes the full performance of Milacron. According to our consolidated performance on slide, five, we delivered revenue of $707 million down 9% compared to the prior year. But in line with expectations, favourable pricing and synergies were more than offset by lower volume and the lower starting backlog entering the year just at EBITDA of $97 million decreased 15% as favourable pricing synergies and the impact of cost actions including the MTS restructuring we completed in fiscal '24 were more than offset by lower volume and cost inflation. We delivered consolidated adjusted EBITDA margin of 13.7%. A decrease of 110 basis points compared to the prior year. Largely due to lower volume. We report a GAAP net income of $6 million or $0.09 per share down from income of $17 million or $0.24 per share in the prior year. Largely due to an increase in business development and integration costs adjusted earnings per share of $0.56 decreased $0.13 or 19% year-over-year and was in line with our expectations. Our adjusted effective tax rate in the quarter was 29.2%. Our cash flow from operations represented a use of $11 million in the quarter which was favourable by $13 million compared to the prior year, primarily due to improved working capital efficiency. As a reminder, Q1 is seasonally a lower relative cash flow quarter for Hillenbrand capital expenditures were $10 million in the quarter and we returned approximately $60 million to shareholders through our quarterly dividend. I'm moving to segment performance starting with APS on slide, six revenue of $511 million decreased 10% compared to the prior year driven by lower volumes. Primarily due to lower starting backlog coming into the quarter. Just an EBITDA of $83 million decreased 14% year-over-year. Although lower volume and cost inflation were headwinds in the quarter, we were able to limit the detrimental impact to approximately 22% versus our standard flow through of roughly 30 to 35% to the benefits of favourable pricing, synergies and productivity. We delivered adjusted even a margin the quarter of 16.2% which was down 70 basis points over the prior year. But in line with expectations, as Kim mentioned, we've recently executed several footprint optimization initiatives. We will continue to evaluate cost actions to help mitigate the near-term market. Uncertainty backlog of $1.6 billion decreased 17% compared to the prior year. Orders were as anticipated in the quarter as customers continued to delay order decisions, uncertainty around interest rates, government policy and inflation remain key factors in driving customer decisions over the near term. We remain confident in our competitive positioning and our ability to drive strong performance. Once order decision timing normalizes, I'll turn you to MTS on slide seven. Revenue of $196 million decreased 5% year- over-year, an adjusted EBITDA of $27 million decreased 15% and adjusted EBITDA margin of 14% decreased 170 basis points due to lower volume cost inflation and ongoing pricing pressure partially offset by the benefit of the restructuring completed last year and other discretionary cost actions. Backlog of $233 million increased 1% compared to the prior year. Orders were aligned with expectations in the quarter, but we do not yet see a broad-based recovery in the near term. However, positive movement in Gardner's mold making index stability in Asia and strength in India do give us cautious optimism. As we look ahead over the medium term as a point of reference, approximately 78% of the Q1 ending backlog is related to the Milacron injection molding and extrusion business. Now turning to slide 8 net debt at the end of the quarter was $1.7 billion and the net debt to adjust the EBITDA ratio was 3.4 times which was in line with our expectations. Debt reduction continues to be our top priority for capital employment and all net proceeds from Milacron sale will be used for this purpose. Based on the estimated close timing, we anticipate leverage will increase modestly in Q2 before dropping into the low threes by the end of the fiscal year before turning to our outlook for Q2 and the remainder of the year, I'll touch on some additional transaction details from last night's announcement. We have entered into a definitive agreement to sell approximately 51% of the Milacron injection molding and extrusion business with an MTS to an affiliate of bank capital for $287 million. Subject to customary closing adjustments. We expect net proceeds after tax to be approximately $250 million to be used for debt pay down reference in fiscal 2024. Milacron crime generated $526 million in revenue and $64 million in adjusted EBITDA. We anticipate this transaction will be completed at the end of our fiscal second quarter or early in our fiscal third quarter. Following the close, our results will include approximately 49% of Milacron's net income which we will report as equity income at corporate. The impact of these changes is reflected in our updated 2025 guidance which I'll now cover on slide 10 based on the expected close timing, our fiscal year guidance now reflects approximately six months of Milacron performance and we have removed their expected performance from the second half of the fiscal year. Which translates to an adjustment of approximately $300 million in revenue and $41 million in adjusted EBITDA which is not of a proportionate share of their net income. We expect to recognize filing the transactions close on the adjusted EPS line. This impact is partially offset by the expected reduction in interest expense. You can see the reconciliation of these impacts on slide 10. Now turning to slide 11, I'll cover updated guidance in more detail. After adjusting for the Milacron transaction, our full year outlook for hill and brand assumes revenue of approximately $2.63 to $2.8 billion adjusted EBITDA of $411 to $447 million and adjusted earnings per share of $2.45 to $2.80. Our updated full year operating cash flow is expected to be approximately $150 million with approximately $45 million of expected CapEx. We do not anticipate a material change in our effective tax rate as a result of the transaction. In summary, outside of the impact of the Milacron transaction, we are maintaining our previous outlook for the remaining businesses. This is based on our original assumption for foreign currency exchange rates which assumed rates would be in line with the fiscal 2024 exit. However, the recent strengthening of the US dollar against other world currencies could become a more significant translation headwind to our as reported results if this persists. Additionally, we are monitoring the potential impact of tariff policy. But given the fluid nature of the current environment, we have not included a material impact or outlook related to the potential tariffs in Canada or Mexico. Given these factors along with the potential effect of geopolitical uncertainty on customer order timing, we will continue to be focused on managing our discretionary costs and identifying additional mitigating actions as needed. Finally, for Q2, we expect consistent performance with Q1 targeting revenue of $685 million to $705 million and adjusted earnings per share in the range of $0.53 to $0.58 on a sequential basis. This reflects modestly improved operational performance, mostly offset by unfavourable effects. Please review slide 11 for additional guidance assumptions with that. I'll turn the call back over to Kim.
Kimberly Ryan-Dennis
Thanks Bob. Before we open the line for Q&A, I'll end our prepared remarks with a few closing comments. Our strategy remains intact, and the competitive strength of our leading brands combined with the enhanced focus on our core business will enable us to return to a solid growth trajectory. Once current macro pressures are resolved, we remain confident in the team's ability to execute on our strategic initiatives, diligently manage costs and navigate the current market conditions to position Hillenbrand for long term success with that operator. Please open the line for questions.
Operator
Thank you. (Operator Instructions) Our first question is from Daniel Moore with CJS securities. Please proceed.
Daniel Moore
Tim Bob. Good morning. Thanks for taking questions. Start with fundamentals and then and then get into the, I'm sure it would be more questions on the transaction. But starting with APS you know, the large Polyol and projects and business. It, you think you said, customer quote lines remain healthy. What are you hearing from customers in terms of what they need to see in order to move from quoting to, to placing orders, the interest rate, clarity, administrative, geopolitical, we get them off the sideline and placing orders again.
Kimberly Ryan-Dennis
Yeah, I think, II think the geopolitical stuff has got, certainly got everyone's attention right now as we had indicated in our last quarterly call, Dan. I think people want to make sure that they understand before they're making major investments in certain areas, exactly what the financial implications of that are going to be. So the pipelines remain strong, especially in areas like and Saudi Arabia, in fact, those have continued to stay strong and improve and, and we've continued our conversations there. But I do think people are waiting for a little bit of this turmoil to level out. And so those are, those are a few of the things that we're hearing. I think relatives in the Polyolefin project, the larger the project kind of the less specifically it's tied to interest rates, the more mid-size the project. That's, what's really more tied to interest rates. And then, and obviously, inflation is a concern and how tariffs may impact the cost of these projects and the payback period. Those are the things that people are kind of watching.
Daniel Moore
Understood, really helpful aftermarket, encouraging. You know, as expected kind of countercyclical reached a new record. What was it as a percentage of revenue and what's the outlook for the next few quarters? I'm sorry, then that was an after-market question. Yeah, after market, I believe you said reached a new record just trying to get, percentage of revenue and then, and then what the outlook?
Robert VanHimbergen
Yeah, great. Yeah, so orders so orders were strong as we mentioned, they were close to like almost 40% of, of total. I'd say orders for the quarter revenue for the for the year. So high 30s is the way I would think about that right now, Dan, I would mention that we did have a mix toward those modernization projects that, that Kim highlighted. And so those are projects that are like mid-term, mid-size refurbishment projects that will be generated, the revenue will be generated over, 7 months to 10 months. So, revenue come over that period on a on a prorated basis, but those could be lucky as well. And timing of those orders revenue again coming forward in the next 7 months to 10 months on that, I'd say for the full year. And you know, I think we're probably, we're, we always targeted that 30%. We've been a little bit north of that here in the quarter and probably the rest of the year, just as we see, improvement in the aftermarket profile, but also as those capital projects. And obviously, we're down a little bit this year with the lower starting backlog.
Kimberly Ryan-Dennis
And so that's a positive on the APS kind of the legacy C side. We also continue to see you know, good activity in terms of aftermarket. You remember that was a key part of our value proposition when we acquired the all the assets that roll up under FHN that, that moniker today. You know, a lot of the opportunity that we saw was around aftermarket. So they have, they've got their organization together, they've begun more proactive sewing in that arena and are, are really putting in some of the standard kind of operating model practices. Those have really begun to bear some fruit in the FHN part of the business as well. And even our Mold Masters business has really been much more proactive about making sure that any service on their assets out in the field is going to be performed by us as the OEM. And so, you know, a lot of good things going on in the aftermarket arena, in all of us, in all of the businesses, I would say.
Daniel Moore
I assume that's part of your ability to manage the decremental as you know, the higher mix of higher margin your term? Okay. And, and one more and then I'll jump back in queue, and we'll circle back to the, to the transaction. But that FHM business, obviously, long term tailwinds are pretty clear. Sounds like the kind of current pause or is it starting to, to thaw and you're starting to see more opportunity there maybe just kind of give more color what you're hearing by geography or end market.
Kimberly Ryan-Dennis
Yeah, we are encouraged at the things that we're seeing in our food and Pharma areas. Specifically North America was very strong this quarter and we saw it in several of the markets, food in the snacking, confectionary, baked goods, pet food. So, we saw a lot of strength in those markets in the quarter and we expect that we will continue to see that for the year. So we are very encouraged by that. I think that the exciting part about that is that we are also starting to do more cross selling across those product portfolios. You know, they operated pretty independently in the in the environment that they came from, especially the Lexus assets. And as they come together with that kind of coherent mindset around happy to sell individual pieces of equipment, but also more than happy to be a consultant, adviser on subsystem and full systems so that we can offer the full breadth of our capabilities to our customers. And that has been, I think that is being well received in the market. So led by North America at this point, which is not surprising because that's where our largest footprint is. But, but at any rate, we're quite encouraged and see a lot of good things coming from those that team who really in earnest started there, really brought together their entire organization under their new management structure and all of that was completed October 1 and so very, very excited about the opportunities that they're going to have in front of them.
Daniel Moore
Great. I'll jump back with it if you follow up. Thank you.
Kimberly Ryan-Dennis
Great. Thanks Dan.
Operator
(Operator Instructions). Our next question is from Mitchell Moore with Key Bank Capital Markets, please proceed.
Mitchell Moore
Hey guys, good morning. That's I was just wondering if you could maybe talk about what drove the decision to sell a majority stake in Milacron rather than a full divestiture and what that process looked like internally and then just how you view the strategic fit for the remaining MTS assets.
Kimberly Ryan-Dennis
Yes. So we discussed several times how we do a very regular review of all of the assets and in our portfolio to determine, kind of on three vectors value to us, value to others and ability in the market to and attractiveness of the market to, look at these assets and bring the greatest return for shareholders. And so we determined it was it was an appropriate time to evaluate what types of opportunities there were for that. In the end, we determined that this was the best, all the best way for us to create return and future opportunity for our shareholders and the best opportunity for Milacron to have some differential investments and growth for their future. So we believe this structure and this partnership is, a great match for Milacron company for Hillenbrand and for the and for bank capital. So this is you know, something that we're excited about and I think our associates are excited about and it gives us the opportunity then to focus all of our energy on continuing to, to focus on these, core businesses that we remain, continue to focus on debt pay down. And, that we believe is, going to create the greatest return for shareholders. We still see opportunities, we like the Milacron business. It was certainly one of the more cyclical businesses in the portfolio. And so that is that was one of the more strategic reasons that we, investigated the alternative. We believe that there is, we like the businesses we have in the portfolio, we believe there is a lot of opportunity in them to continue to go forward and, and we, but obviously, we continue to evaluate all the businesses all the time to make sure that we are the, best donors in creating the best outcome for our shareholders.
Mitchell Moore
Great. That's super helpful. And then just maybe in a normal operating environment, could you flush out what MTS looks like now from a growth margin perspective? And maybe with the proceeds of the sale, could you provide an update as to when you expect to be back within leverage guardrails?
Robert VanHimbergen
Yeah, sure. So I'll take the first one and then I'll cover the second one. Mitch. Yeah. So, the proceeds of the sale, we expect this transaction to close, I'd say at the end of March or early April and, and that'll help us deliver by approximately 0.2 turns. And so what that gets us to at the end of the year is in the, in the low freeze. So we won't be within our guard rails of 17 to 27, this fiscal year, but I'd highlight that debt pay down still is our number one priority for capital allocation. And then on the, on your first question related to the MTS segment. So, keep in mind that, this business has been depressed with volumes and pricing pressure, the last, you know, almost two years now. And, and so we see once this gets back to, I'd say normalcy, that the margin of this business should be in the mid-20s, and maybe a little bit north of that as far as margins. And, that generally speaking, this business is a short cycle business. And historically, it does when it recovers, it recovers back pretty quickly. But I would think of this business over the medium to long term as a low single digit growth business and margins and that again, that mid to mid to high 20s.
Mitchell Moore
Okay, great. I'll hop back in Keep it. Thanks. Thank you.
Operator
Our next question is a follow up from Daniel Moore with CJS Securities. Please proceed.
Daniel Moore
Yes. Thank you very much. Following up on the transaction. Just getting into the weeds a little bit. How do we think about, maybe that the transaction multiple and you know, with the capital structure of the new entity just to get a, get a sense there. And you know, what's the end game, do you expect to sell the remaining 49% at some stage or, and I think you answered, if there's remaining assets that you consider noncore, a lot of questions there, but I guess focus on the Milacron transaction first. Yeah, maybe I'll start with, I'll start with a little bit of math.
Robert VanHimbergen
Yeah. So, the multiple then, when you look at the face of what it would look like you're going to get like something like a nine multiple, but the capital structure of the deal isn't quite as clear. And so I would assume it's like in the 6 to 7 range of the multiple that we on that. And so the accounting for that, keep in mind we're going to get, $285 million give or take (202 102 $150 )million net of tax, you know, up on the sale and then we'll retain that 49% ownership in that business and then we'll record equity income on that, which will be our 49% of their net income moving forward. And so in our guidance, we've got about $4 million of earnings in the second half of the year associated with the, with that transaction. So hopefully that gives you a little bit of clarity on that.
Kimberly Ryan-Dennis
In terms of the, yeah in terms of the long term, Dan, I would II think, really, we see a lot of opportunity for them to you know, to continue to explore investment opportunities for growth. And so I think that a lot of that end game obviously depends on, how those strategies set out, you know, paying capital. You know, I don't want to speak for them there. They will be operating the company, and they will be determining the outcome, we will be a minority interest holder in that. So I think would be, I don't think it would be appropriate for me to speculate on what their time frames are, how they, how they plan to move forward with that. But we believe that based on the opportunities and investments that we expect that they will, pursue in that business that, that it will create. We felt that that would definitely have the opportunity to create the greatest outcome for our shareholders over the long term.
Daniel Moore
Understood, makes sense and very consistent with, the strategy you've laid out just Bob to clarify that $4 million is the equity income. It's kind of net of equity income and any TSA payments. Is that the right way to think about it?
Robert VanHimbergen
Yeah, so that, that's right. So that equity income will be reported at corporate and then as far as TSA ban on corporate costs, so our corporate costs would be pretty consistent with what we've laid out, the original guy that we gave beginning of the year. And so we'll have obviously a period of time where we'll be supporting, that that business with corporate cost and, and obviously charging transaction services to that entity. And so we've been focused in the last, the last probably six months, as you know, as you can see from our corporate costs, we've been really managing that knowing that this is, that was a potential. And, and so I think the way I think about it is our corporate costs be pretty consistent here with what we've got at the beginning of the year because we will be in curing those costs and then charging those out to support that Milacron business.
Daniel Moore
Okay. And then similar to the Milacron question, pro forma, let's go 18 months market normalizes a little bit. How do you think about kind of the overall, EBITDA margin and you know, maybe free cash flow conversion capabilities of the assets that we have in place. You know, post the divestiture.
Robert VanHimbergen
Yeah. So if you're thinking 18 months down the road, Dan, I still think, obviously, if there's a normalcy in recovery in the hot runner business, I think again, that's going to be in the mid to high 20s margins growing at, low single digits on the top line and then, EPS we continue to improve margins there. We can see that F PM business get to historical margins. And so once again that this quarter, they perform extremely well in that high teams margin. So I think, we'll probably be called high teams, be low 20s and that EPS. And then in the MTS segment will be in that mid 20s and, maybe 18 plus months in that, that high 20s.
Daniel Moore
And that free cash flow conversion.
Robert VanHimbergen
Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah. You know, our target is still 100% of, of conversion. And so you think we're 18 months out? I think we'll be a lot closer to that number considering, a lot of the integration stuff behind us. So, I kind of think about it that way then.
Daniel Moore
Okay, that's it for me. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you with no further questions in the queue. I would like to hand it back over to Kim for closing remarks.
Kimberly Ryan-Dennis
Thanks again for joining us, everyone one. The first Quarter call we appreciate your ownership. And interest in Hillenbrand and we look forward to talking to you again late April when we will cover our second quarter results. Thank you and have a great rest of your day.
Operator
Thank you. This will conclude today's conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time and thank you for your participation.