RBC Bearings Inc (ROLL) Q4 2021 Earnings Call Transcript

Image source: The Motley Fool.

RBC Bearings Inc (ROLL -0.53%)
Q4 2021 Earnings Call
May 21, 2021, 11:00 a.m. ET

Contents:

• Prepared Remarks
• Questions and Answers
• Call Participants

Prepared Remarks:

Operator

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the RBC Bearings' Fiscal 2021 Fourth Quarter Earnings Call. At this [Operator Instructions] Please be advised that today's conference may be recorded. [Operator Instructions]

I'd now like to hand the conference over to your host today, Mr. Will Stack with Alpha IR. Please go ahead.

Will Stack -- Investor Relations

Good morning and thank you for joining us for RBC Bearings' fiscal 2021 fourth quarter earnings conference call. With me on the call today are Dr. Michael J. Hartnett, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer; Daniel A. Bergeron, Director, Vice President and Chief Operating Officer; and Robert Sullivan, Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Before beginning today's call, let me remind you that some of the statements made today will be forward looking and are made under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.

Actual results may differ materially from those projected or implied due to a variety of factors. We refer you to RBC Bearings' recent filings with the SEC for a more detailed discussion of the risks that could impact the company's future operating results and financial condition. These factors also described in greater detail in the press release and on the company's website. In addition, reconciliation between GAAP and non-GAAP financial information is included as part of the release and is available on the company's website.

Now, I'll turn the call over to Dr. Hartnett.

Michael J. Hartnett -- Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer

Thank you, Will. Good morning and welcome. Net sales for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2021 were $160.3 million versus $185.8 million for the same period last year, a decrease of 13.7%. For fourth quarter of 2021, sales of industrial products represented 47% of our net sales with aerospace products at 53%. Gross margin for the quarter was $62.5 million or 39% of net sales. This compares to $76.6 million or 41.2% for the same period last year. Operating income was $29.7 million, 18.6% of net sales compared to last year's $43.5 million or 23.4% respectively.

Adjusted EBITDA was $45.9 million, 28.6% of net sales compared to $56.3 million and 30.3% of net sales for the same period last year. We ended the quarter with $241.3 million of cash and securities and $16.1 million of debt. Year-to-date free cash flow was a record $140.7 million. We entered the fourth quarter and saw a substantial strengthening of our industrial sector. All markets participated, industrial distribution, mining, machine tool, rail, semiconductor machinery, marine, and wind. We also saw a substantial increase quoting and contract activity from the aerospace sector.

Sales of industrial products were up 12.9% from last year led by OEM, which was up 15.1%. Sequential quarter comparisons show industrials were up by 16.8% led by a distribution at 21.3%. Industrial distribution gave a very strong showing during the period across all product lines and geographies. In fact, we could have sold more if we had stock in many of the mixed items. We are busy today on inventory replenishment and increasing many key stocking positions. Marine, the build-out of the Virginia and Columbia submarine fleets continue. We have completed Block 4 build-out of the Virginia class and are starting in the next 10 boat contract this month.

We are also preparing for the Columbia to begin production cycle in calendar year 2022. On semiconductor, the race to expand semiconductor manufacturing is driving requirements for machinery and components at levels we haven't experienced before. As you know, this is driven by demand for computers and automobiles, phones, games, self-driving cars, 5G technology, etcetera. Over the past 20 years, we have diligently built out very strong positions with the machine builders and achieved considerable design excellence, manufacturing scale and reputation in these markets. We are now realizing the benefits of all these efforts.

Turning to Aerospace and Defense, the fourth quarter fiscal 2021 net sales were down 28.6% on a quarter-over-quarter basis, but up sequentially 4.5%. Boeing is slowly increasing demand for products for the 737 MAX suppliers as they consume their excess inventory positions. We are pleased to see the turnaround in consumption here and expect each quarter to be better than the last going forward. We are planning to support a 140 to 150 plane build-out this year moving to 350 to 400 737 MAXs next year. Given the new rules for vaccinated travelers to Europe we expect to see an improved outlook for the 777 and the 787 ships and their build rates by the end of the summer or sooner.

We are currently supporting audits of our production capacities by both Boeing and Airbus personnel as laid plans to build -- to increase their production rates. Airbus currently at 40 to 42 A320 series per month is targeted to their well-known goal of 60 ships per month. As reported earlier the plan is to build 800 total ships of all designs in 2022. Space -- moving to space, there's a claim space is the new aerospace. We are active with many of the daily headline names supplying components as diverse as bearings for rocket engines, fins for directional control, structures for landing gear, actuation devices, low friction cryogenic components.

The pace is always fast and the development path normally uncertain but we like where this is going and doing whatever we can so that we're not the bottleneck on the process of landing a man on Mars. This can develop into a significant business scale for RBC as the plans of the significant entrepreneurs are realized over the next few years. More of this on future calls. And finally defense, we certainly have a dream portfolio in terms of platform composition and outlook and expect continued strength from this sector for many years. Regarding our fourth quarter we are expecting sales to be between $154 million and $158 million. It's a little bit hard to predict these numbers today, and I'm sure that we'll be talking about that more later in the call. So, I'll defer to that discussion.

And I'll now turn the call over to Dan and Rob for more detail on the financial performance.

Robert M. Sullivan -- Vice President, Chief Financial Officer

Thank you, Mike. Since Mike has already covered net sales and gross margin, I'll jump down to SG&A. SG&A for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2021 was $27.4 million compared to $31.0 million for the same period last year. The decrease was mainly due to lower personnel costs of $3.4 million and $0.5 million of other items offset by $0.3 million of higher share-based compensation costs. As a percentage of net sales, SG&A was 17.1% for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2021 compared to 16.7% for the same period last year. Other operating expense for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2021 was expense of $5.3 million compared to expense of $2.1 million for the same period last year.

For the fourth quarter of fiscal 2021, other operating expenses were comprised mainly of $2.5 million in amortization of intangible assets, $1.5 million of costs associated with a cyber event, $1.0 million of restructuring costs and related items, and $0.3 million of other items. Other operating expense for the same period last year consisted mainly of $2.6 million in amortization of intangible assets, $0.8 million of restructuring costs and $0.1 million of other items, offset by $1.4 million gain on the sale of a surplus building. Operating income was $29.7 million for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2021 compared to operating income of $43.5 million for the same period in fiscal 2020. On an adjusted basis, operating income would have been $32.5 million for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2021 compared to adjusted operating income of $43.0 million for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2020.

For the fourth quarter of fiscal 2021, the company reported net income of $25.0 million compared to net income of $33.8 million for the same period last year. On an adjusted basis, net income would have been $27.4 million for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2021 compared to adjusted net income of $33.1 million for the same period last year. Diluted earnings per share were $0.99 per share for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2021 compared to $1.35 per share for the same period last year. On an adjusted basis, diluted earnings per share for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2021 was $1.08 per share compared to adjusted diluted earnings per share of $1.33 per share for the same period last year.

During the cash flow, the company generated $41.9 million in cash from operating activities in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2021 compared to $44.4 million for the same period last year and $152.5 million in cash from operating activities for the full-year fiscal 2021 compared to $155.6 million for the full year last year. Capital expenditures were $3.0 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2021 compared to $9.7 million for the same period last year. On a 12-month basis, capital expenditures were $11.8 million compared to $37.3 million last year. Free cash flow for the full year, which includes cash from operating activities less capital expenditures was $140.7 million for fiscal 2021 compared to $118.3 million in fiscal 2020. Total debt as of April 3, 2021 was $16.1 million. And cash and marketable securities on hand was $241.3 million.

I would now like to turn the call back to the operator for the question-and-answer session.

Questions and Answers:

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Pete Skibitski with Alembic Global Advisors.

Peter Skibitski -- Alembic Global Advisors -- Analyst

Hey. Good morning, Mike and Dan and Rob. Nice quarter.

Michael J. Hartnett -- Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer

Good morning.

Robert M. Sullivan -- Vice President, Chief Financial Officer

Good morning.

Peter Skibitski -- Alembic Global Advisors -- Analyst

Hey, guys, can we talk about -- the press release talked about a charge related to a cyber incident. You quantified it in the release. Can we talk about that, kind of what happened and if it's fully resolved now?

Michael J. Hartnett -- Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah. So, in the last week of February, the company experienced a cyber event. The event had no material impact to our business. No employee, customer, vendor or company files were extracted from our systems and our main ERP systems are not impacted. We hired two independent forensic specialists to review the cyber event and assist in the remediation. We incurred about $1.5 million in costs associated with the remediation. And when our 10-K comes out today, you can read more about the certain risks and uncertainties as a result of any security incident as described in the 10-K under the section entitled, Risk Factors.

Peter Skibitski -- Alembic Global Advisors -- Analyst

Okay. I appreciate the color there. It's a problem that's going around. Can we talk more about semiconductors? It's -- you guys seem to be, like you alluded to, kind of into a real trend here globally. Can you maybe outline for us kind of how big was it for you as a sub-niche in fiscal '21 and maybe the level of growth that you think is reasonable in fiscal '22?

Michael J. Hartnett -- Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah. Well, let us just -- I don't have the numbers on the top of my head here, Pete. But let us research that a little bit.

Peter Skibitski -- Alembic Global Advisors -- Analyst

Okay, OK. I'll move on to something else. Mike, maybe you can talk about M&A. I think the consensus that I hear in commercial aerospace is that even though we've gone through this or maybe because we've gone through this horrible downturn, no one is really wanting to sell it for the most part because of the expectations we have to sell such a steep discount. Is that kind of what you guys are seeing in the M&A marketplace? And maybe on any other call you could add just given the strength of your balance sheet and I know your proclivity toward M&A.

Michael J. Hartnett -- Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah. Well, I'd say on the aerospace side, we're not seeing too many attractive candidates on the -- for M&A. I mean, the guys that couldn't make it didn't make it. There's some bankruptcies there that we don't find interesting. So, it's -- we don't really do much with them. I think that whole sector is on pause a little bit until things correct. On the other hand, there is some small assets out there that are attractive. And we may have some news on that in the not too distant future.

Peter Skibitski -- Alembic Global Advisors -- Analyst

Okay. Fair enough. I appreciate the color. I'll get to the end of the queue, let someone else talk. Thanks.

Michael J. Hartnett -- Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer

Okay.

Operator

Our next question comes from Michael Ciarmoli with Truist Securities.

Michael Ciarmoli -- Truist Securities, Inc. -- Analyst

Hey. Good morning, gentlemen. Nice results. I guess -- I don't know who wants to fill this one, but I guess looking at the guidance for the next quarter, I know you've historically got some seasonality with maybe at 1Q being a bit weaker. But what drives that sequential step-down? I mean it sounds like there's optimism and quoting strength, booking strength across all markets. So, is there anything driving that sequential weakness between quarters here as we move into the first quarter?

Michael J. Hartnett -- Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah. Well, first of all, there's -- in our lineup, Mike, there's kind of a -- obviously, there's a shift in leadership in terms of what's growing, what's not growing. And what's growing is the industrial sector, right? But it's -- there's a lot to consider here. The industrial demand is a lot of it is short term in nature. And it will be up. And our challenge is to try to determine how much it will be up, right? So, we tried to reflect. We tried to reflect some of that in the outlook, but, frankly, we're not -- did we reflect enough? I'm not sure. I mean it's -- we haven't -- normally, when the Purchasing Managers' Index is north of 55, we can't make it fast enough and we can't keep it in stock, OK?

When it's over 60 now, it's in a world that we've never lived in before. So, it's sort of off the edge of the map. And so, it's hard for us to predict exactly what the upside of our sales are going to be on the industrial side. And the problem that it -- that is we had so much demand in the fourth quarter that a lot of our key inventories for key mix items were depleted. So, we're rushing to replenish those stocks. But there's a lead time. There's a lead time there. And so, we have to add materials and labor. Right now, materials are a bit constrained. We have -- are having trouble getting steel. We are having trouble getting some of our -- some of the product that we import through the ports and we're competing with our own government on labor, you know. So, oh we have.

Anyways, we're working through that and we're keeping UPS and FedEx business because we're air shipping parts at our customer's expense from Asia that we use for some of our components. So, it's an interesting time. I think on the aerospace side, a primary factor here is the Boeing ramp. And with the abrupt cease in 737 MAX production in March of 2020, there was just a lot of componentry that was left in the system. So, they're working through that overhang now. And I expect quarter-to-quarter, it will be better. And I expect by the end of the year, the calendar year, we'll probably be through it.

And I think next year at this time, our capacity is going to be taxed with demand. And -- so right now, we're trying to think through how do we position ourselves mix wise, so that our capacity and the demand curve intersect in the right place at the right time. And so that's really the calculus. And so, there's lots of lumps in the pudding right now on the logistic side. And it's not just for us. I think it's just for the whole US as we try to work through these issues. So I expect this is just the normal exit of any -- of a pandemic. I hope to never experience it again.

Michael Ciarmoli -- Truist Securities, Inc. -- Analyst

I think we are all in agreement on that. So it sounds like, I mean aerospace though you think, I mean and based on what you're building toward. I mean, you'll probably see these continued gradual, sequential improvement. And then like you said, industrial is going to be the big swing factor. What about on the pricing side. I mean are you -- you talked about some expedited shipping. Are you able to pass off and pass through a lot of these price increases? And how's that impacting sort of your current contracts? Are there any markets that might be more exposed or less exposed to pass through? I know aero is usually a full pass through, but anything on the pricing side that's kind of raising the yellow flag that you're seeing?

Michael J. Hartnett -- Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer

Well, the devil's in the details here. I mean, you can -- these expenses on expedited freight and expedited materials and all that sort of thing. And just pass through the night and surprise you. So we have filters up to make sure that we have early warning indications of any excursions that we need to deal with right away. And until we deal with them right away, either we have in our contracts a pass through material costs or we explain to our customers, there's these extraordinary expenses to service your account. And we sometimes have -- we sometimes share those expenses. We sometimes pass them along 100% and sometimes we don't. And it depends. It's very -- it's situationally dependent, but we're confident we can manage through it.

Michael Ciarmoli -- Truist Securities, Inc. -- Analyst

Got it, got it. Thanks for the color, guys. I'll jump back in the queue here.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from Steve Barger with KeyBanc Capital Markets.

Steve Barger -- KeyBanc Capital Markets -- Analyst

Hey. Good morning, guys.

Michael J. Hartnett -- Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer

Morning.

Steve Barger -- KeyBanc Capital Markets -- Analyst

Mike, you talked about how strong industrial is just thinking about aero, it's got a negative 15% comp from last year's 1Q. Do you expect positive year-over-year growth this quarter in aero?

Michael J. Hartnett -- Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer

Good question. I think it's probably going to be flat. It might be up slightly, but it's not -- it's definitely not going to be a barnburner.

Steve Barger -- KeyBanc Capital Markets -- Analyst

Right. Yes. And last quarter, you'd said there was some limited visibility around aero order trends. Has that cleared up, or just what is -- what are you seeing from your -- in terms of order rates?

Michael J. Hartnett -- Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer

It's definitely improved.

Steve Barger -- KeyBanc Capital Markets -- Analyst

Yes.

Michael J. Hartnett -- Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer

It's substantially improved.

Steve Barger -- KeyBanc Capital Markets -- Analyst

And I guess shifting back to industrial, I know it's hard to call the year. But would you guess the industrial business has double-digit growth in FY 2022 just given how strongly the year starting and the trends that you're seeing.

Michael J. Hartnett -- Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah. Absolutely. No question about it.

Steve Barger -- KeyBanc Capital Markets -- Analyst

Yes. And I understand you don't have semiconductor mix handy. But what is the message you're getting from the equipment manufacturers in terms of demand transfer or just how are you looking at it in terms of visibility?

Michael J. Hartnett -- Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer

Right now, the message that we're getting is you can -- for our key customers, we can ship everything we can make as quickly as we can make it. These are pretty sophisticated products and there's a lot of processed steps and special features. So, there's a speed limit on how quickly you can get this produced, but the situation is very good.

Steve Barger -- KeyBanc Capital Markets -- Analyst

All right. Thanks.

Operator

Our next question comes from Pete Skibitski with Alembic Global Advisors.

Peter Skibitski -- Alembic Global Advisors -- Analyst

Yeah. Let me just follow on to the kind of capex-type of issues. Capex came down quite a bit this year. I want to ask, how much do you expect to spend in fiscal 2022? And is there a case to make that you need to build out your semiconductor facilities or is that too early to know, too risky, was just interested in your thoughts on that.

Michael J. Hartnett -- Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer

I think it looks to me like the capex this year is going to be a little bit on the light side simply because the year before the pandemic, it was little on the heavy side, as we were building out capacity to support various programs. That capacities built out now, and so it needs to be put to work. And it's mostly in the aerospace side. So, as conditions improve that capacity will get utilized. So, I think overall, I don't expect this year and last year to be materially different.

Peter Skibitski -- Alembic Global Advisors -- Analyst

Okay, OK. So it will stay in that $10 million to $15 million type of a range, OK. And then Mike, thinking about margins that you sustained them at a pretty nice level, they only came in 2 points in this crazy year of fiscal '21. How fast are you guys thinking they come back, as I think you've talked about maybe 0.5 point adjusted operating margin improvement each year or would the sharp increase in volumes? Are you thinking maybe a full point or more in fiscal '22? What's the right way to think about that?

Michael J. Hartnett -- Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer

Well, it's going to be hard to -- again, it's -- there's a lot of moving parts here. We should do very well. I mean, we're going to have increased volume over reduced cost structure. That alone is going to be very helpful, right? And we got to keep an eye on the inflationary pressures because those are going to be real and we have to make adjustments in pricing or surcharges or however we want to manage those accordingly. So, that's all in our wheelhouse to manage. And so, we just need to be on top of that game. So overall, I expect that the gross margin level to be the margins would do very well.

Now, at the operating income level, I think we're going to have to front load some SG&A expense to satisfy the requirements of a larger business each quarter as the year progresses. So, that's just the way that works. And so, we expected probably to lose a couple of margin points on the EBIT line as we get ahead of the requirements for engineers and salespeople, business management people, customer service people as we bring all that back again.

Peter Skibitski -- Alembic Global Advisors -- Analyst

Okay. So you're saying first half of the year maybe lose some margin points but you expect to do better in the second half of the year or are we talking about the full year?

Michael J. Hartnett -- Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah. I think Rob probably knows the numbers better than me but I think for the full year we may be down -- maybe up what a percentage point on SG&A, that kind of thing?

Robert M. Sullivan -- Vice President, Chief Financial Officer

Yeah. I think we're going to see some pick up in SG&A on the back half of the year as the comparisons from sales take off. We'll just see that front loaded cost structure as we bring the folks on. So in the second half of the year you should see some overall operating margin improvement.

Peter Skibitski -- Alembic Global Advisors -- Analyst

Okay. Okay. Okay. We'll watch that. And then just last two for me on the defense side, on submarines, it sounds like maybe right now in Columbia there's not a ton of activity on the Columbia right now because you mentioned I think the year after, maybe calendar '22 is when the production starts for you guys. So are you thinking maybe fiscal '22 you'll have maybe a little bit of a kind of a bathtub on submarine revenue or is overall activity within the subs just so strong that it's kind of continued up into the right?

Daniel A. Bergeron -- Director, Vice President and Chief Operating Officer

Yeah. Pete, this is Dan. This year we finished that up -- in the quarter up to 40% on marine and I think going into next year we will be starting to ship some or at least working on hardware for the Columbia in this fiscal year. And so we're expecting another 10% growth rate for us on the marine side.

Peter Skibitski -- Alembic Global Advisors -- Analyst

Okay.

Daniel A. Bergeron -- Director, Vice President and Chief Operating Officer

End of this year around $40 million, so.

Peter Skibitski -- Alembic Global Advisors -- Analyst

Okay. Okay. And is there any -- I know you guys have a lot of content on the F-35 and I think -- as we go out two or three years, I think that production profile starts to flatten a bit. So I just want to get a sense because I know you're confident overall on the defense side. Are you seeing any aftermarket stream from the F-35 at all? I'm just wondering maybe how you could potentially offset that in the midterm when production volumes start to flatten?

Michael J. Hartnett -- Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah. No. We're not seeing it yet, Pete.

Peter Skibitski -- Alembic Global Advisors -- Analyst

Okay. Okay. Okay, fair enough. Okay. So just overall, Mike your confidence on the defense side is just kind of new business wins that sort of thing?

Michael J. Hartnett -- Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah. There's a lot going on in the defense side. There's platforms beyond the F-35 that we can talk about. And then, there's -- frankly, there's some that we shouldn't talk about. But I -- we're happy with the suite of our positions and where this whole thing is going. And we're sort of integrated, well-integrated with the right lead contractors in all of these programs. And we have important positions and expanding positions on all of these programs.

Peter Skibitski -- Alembic Global Advisors -- Analyst

Yeah. Okay. That's great. Thanks very much guys.

Operator

Our next question comes from Michael Ciarmoli with Truist Securities.

Michael Ciarmoli -- Truist Securities, Inc. -- Analyst

Hey, guys. Thanks for taking the follow up. Maybe just on aerospace, specifically in the aftermarket and distribution, what are you guys seeing there? We continue to hear optimism from suppliers that as we see more cycles, we are going to start to see that airline spending kick in. But are you seeing any sort of restocking yet? Maybe any color that you could provide from product at the distributor channel? And are you seeing more pull-through there? Because I would think that, that's going to recover and snap back much quicker than the OE production side. But any color on that?

Michael J. Hartnett -- Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah. Well, we -- the aerospace distribution channel has been, let's say, interesting. There has been a lot of changes in management and net changes in ownership. And so we have -- and I think that's sort of interrupted their momentum in previous years. But that is all coalescing again. And we are seeing sort of we are seeing a year ahead that looks like it will be up substantially double-digits in aerospace distribution.

Michael Ciarmoli -- Truist Securities, Inc. -- Analyst

Okay, OK. Is it anything -- is it more tied to engine shop visit? Is it some of the component accessory repair that we should be looking out for? I mean where are the bulk of your kind of products going into? Is it more in the airframe side, I guess engine side?

Michael J. Hartnett -- Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer

Well, it's all of the above. I think now that the panic is over and the crisis is over, relative to air travel and all that sort of thing, those distributors have been really frozen in terms of order rates and trying to maintain their cash flows and so on and so forth. Well, there is renewed confidence in air travel and the distributor can only be the distributor if they have items to distribute. And so they are building back their inventories as we speak. And so that's -- we are seeing that as a pickup in our business, and that will be probably stronger each quarter this year.

Michael Ciarmoli -- Truist Securities, Inc. -- Analyst

Got it, got it. Last one for me, I think you mentioned some positive comments about wide-bodies and maybe seeing, I guess, better demand pull and build rates by the end of the summer. It seems like there is still a lot of uncertainty there. But -- and I think you called out the 777, but broadly, are you seeing any leading indicators on the wide-bodies, the A70, the A350, your other significant platforms?

Michael J. Hartnett -- Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer

No, we are not seeing any news or any direct indication that things are better there. The fact that Europe is opening up and desperately needs Americans to travel there and spend their dollars is an important aspect of that. And the fact that Americans want to go to Europe and spend their dollars is an important aspect of that. So, I think that air travel for those ships is going to be -- to rebound more quickly than anybody expected.

Michael Ciarmoli -- Truist Securities, Inc. -- Analyst

Okay, got it. All right. Thanks, guys.

Michael J. Hartnett -- Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah.

Operator

Our next question comes from Joseph P. Ciarleglio with BFS.

Joseph P. Ciarleglio -- Bradley, Foster & Sargent, Inc. -- Analyst

Good morning, guys. How are you?

Michael J. Hartnett -- Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer

Good morning.

Robert M. Sullivan -- Vice President, Chief Financial Officer

Good morning.

Joseph P. Ciarleglio -- Bradley, Foster & Sargent, Inc. -- Analyst

You had mentioned inflationary pressures across the business obviously specifically higher steel costs, but also some labor cost pressures. I'm just curious about how far RBC is along in terms of automating its factories in terms of robotics, etcetera in order to offset some of those labor pressures.

Michael J. Hartnett -- Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer

Well, I mean we are pretty advanced in terms of factory automation. A lot of our products, because of the nature of who we service, are -- the lot sizes are small. So, it requires a little bit different automation concept than not. And so it's taken us years to determine the right strategies and the improvement in manufacturing technology for robots and machine tools, and the integration between robots and machine tools, and how that all works has gotten so much better. And in the courses in mechanical engineering at the universities that have focused on improving the credentials for engineers in control engineering has been -- it has been valuable to us. And so over the past half a dozen years we have been able to take all of that and make large improvements and gains in our plans.

Joseph P. Ciarleglio -- Bradley, Foster & Sargent, Inc. -- Analyst

Great. Thank you. And then just my second question was just on the restructuring and consolidation cost in the quarter. I think you had a gain on sale of a surplus building. Just any commentary may be around further opportunities to consolidate the manufacturing base or may be factory count at quarter end and how that's trended versus pre-pandemic? Thanks.

Robert M. Sullivan -- Vice President, Chief Financial Officer

Yeah. Yeah. The gain was from last year. That's a building we sold down in Texas last year on a comparison purpose. Some of the negative restructuring we had in the fourth quarter was just finalizing the moves that we are making on the West Coast with some of our small plants that we have talked about in Q2 and Q3, where we combined two plants together, and we combined 1 plant from a 2 building scenario to a 1 build in scenario. So right now, there is no major consolidation planned, but we will always look at ways to become a little more efficient with our real estate and our manufacturing facilities.

Joseph P. Ciarleglio -- Bradley, Foster & Sargent, Inc. -- Analyst

Thanks. Appreciate it.

Operator

We have a follow up question from the line of Michael Ciarmoli with Truist Securities.

Michael Ciarmoli -- Truist Securities, Inc. -- Analyst

Hey, thanks guys. Sorry. Just one more. Looking at the balance sheet cap structure, I know you guys have been talking about M&A for a while. We have been asking about M&A for a while. But clearly, the strong balance sheet may be a little bit of a lazy balance sheet in terms of generating returns. I mean outside of M&A, and I know you said maybe something to be seen soon here. But what else are you guys thinking in terms of the cap structure, leverage? Is it dividend? Is it a special dividend? Anything else you guys are kicking around to maybe think about overall returns?

Michael J. Hartnett -- Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer

Mike, we still consider ourselves a growth company. We want to be able to grow the top line at 10% compounded. And so we're out looking hard for acquisitions. We want to redeploy that money back into growth, into organic growth, into acquisition growth. So, that's where our focus and target is.

Michael Ciarmoli -- Truist Securities, Inc. -- Analyst

Got it. Got it. All right. Perfect. Thanks, guys.

Operator

I'm showing no further questions in queue at this time. I'd like to turn the call back to Dr. Hartnett for closing remarks.

Michael J. Hartnett -- Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer

Okay. Well, that concludes our conference call on fiscal year '21. And as we move into fiscal year '22, we are very optimistic. And I think the situation has changed, where now it's how much can you make and how quickly can you make it and deliver it to us, which is exactly the kind of problem that we want to be dealing with. So, we will be looking forward to report on that more in July. Thanks. Thanks for participating.

Operator

[Operator Closing Remarks]

Duration: 40 minutes

Call participants:

Will Stack -- Investor Relations

Michael J. Hartnett -- Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer

Robert M. Sullivan -- Vice President, Chief Financial Officer

Daniel A. Bergeron -- Director, Vice President and Chief Operating Officer

Peter Skibitski -- Alembic Global Advisors -- Analyst

Michael Ciarmoli -- Truist Securities, Inc. -- Analyst

Steve Barger -- KeyBanc Capital Markets -- Analyst

Joseph P. Ciarleglio -- Bradley, Foster & Sargent, Inc. -- Analyst

More ROLL analysis

All earnings call transcripts