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Dover Corp

Exchange: NYSESector: IndustrialsIndustry: Specialty Industrial Machinery

Dover is a diversified global manufacturer and solutions provider with annual revenue of over $8 billion. We deliver innovative equipment and components, consumable supplies, aftermarket parts, software and digital solutions, and support services through five operating segments: Engineered Products, Clean Energy & Fueling, Imaging & Identification, Pumps & Process Solutions and Climate & Sustainability Technologies. Dover combines global scale with operational agility to lead the markets we serve. Recognized for our entrepreneurial approach for over 70 years, our team of approximately 24,000 employees takes an ownership mindset, collaborating with customers to redefine what's possible. Headquartered in Downers Grove, Illinois, Dover trades on the New York Stock Exchange under "DOV."

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Trading 44% above its estimated fair value of $125.32.

Current Price

$225.79

-0.27%

GoodMoat Value

$125.32

44.5% overvalued
Profile
Valuation (TTM)
Market Cap$30.45B
P/E27.64
EV$30.77B
P/B4.11
Shares Out134.87M
P/Sales3.68
Revenue$8.28B
EV/EBITDA17.04

Dover Corp (DOV) — Q1 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Apr 5, 202612 speakers5,981 words46 segments

Original transcript

JD
Jack DickensSenior Director of Investor Relations

Thank you, Todd. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining our call. An audio version of this call will be available on our website through May 17 and a replay link of the webcast will be archived for 90 days. Dover provides non-GAAP information and reconciliations between GAAP and adjusted measures are included in our investor supplement and presentation materials, which are available on our website. Our comments today will include forward-looking statements based on current expectations. Actual results and events could differ from those statements due to a number of risks and uncertainties, which are discussed in our SEC filings. We assume no obligation to update our forward-looking statements. With that, I will turn the call over to Rich.

RT
Richard TobinPresident and CEO

Thanks, Jack. Good morning, everybody. Let's start with the performance highlights on Slide 3. The quarter was solid overall. We are very pleased with our production performance to start the year which allowed us to begin reducing our inventory balances towards the end of the quarter. Consolidated organic revenue was up 3%, with growth across most of our businesses driven largely by the secular growth tailwinds that we outlined at our most recent Investor Day. The majority of our input and supply chain constraints have dissipated, resulting in production lead times largely returning to pre-pandemic levels. This has led to more normalized order patterns, improved shipping volumes and a gradual reduction of elevated backlog. New order intake was robust in the quarter with four out of five segments posting book-to-bill of one. New bookings increased sequentially in the first quarter, and our order backlog remains elevated compared to normal levels providing us with good visibility for the remainder of the year. During the quarter, we de-booked some volume from our backlog and retail refrigeration from a single customer, which put the timing of 2023 capital plan under review. Our expectation is that we'll be rebooking the volume in the second half. Margin performance in the quarter was strong with four out of our five segments improving margins over 100 basis points, driven by broad-based productivity gains, positive price/cost dynamics and prior period investments and cost containment actions. Higher segment earnings performance drove our EPS growth. We had some comparable cost headwinds during the quarter from transitory inorganic activity costs, higher interest expense, foreign exchange and tax. Brad will review later. Interest costs are set to drop progressively for the balance of the year and foreign exchange at current rates turns into a comparable tailwind in the back half. Our recent investments in automation and productivity projects are paying off, and we are in the process of completing several capacity expansions in our secular growth businesses. The acquisition of Witte in our Pumps & Process Solutions segment, which we completed in December last year is off to a great start and is performing above expectations. Our strong financial position allows us to pursue a healthy pipeline of attractive bolt-on acquisitions and to opportunistically return capital to our shareholders. We are encouraged by the trends and performance so far in 2023. We have a constructive but also watchful outlook for the remainder of the year. Overall, demand conditions in our attractive industrial markets remain solid and our bookings are healthy. Our order backlogs, especially in our longer-cycle businesses provide good visibility to our forecast. We are on track to deliver our full year cash flow target as we liquidate inventory in concert with the normalization of our backlog. We are mindful of the macroeconomic backdrop and we are staying close to our customers to understand their plans. We have available cost control levers and operational flexibility that should enable us to deliver good results in various macroeconomic environments. With that, we maintain our 2023 full year guidance of 3% to 5% organic revenue growth and adjusted EPS of $8.85 to $9.05 per share. I'll skip Slide 4. Let's move on to the segments. Engineered Products was up 3% organically in the quarter, driven by positive pricing, strong demand for waste handling equipment parts and related digital services. The chassis availability issues that impacted the waste handling business coming out of the pandemic have improved. And to the extent that, that supply continues to be available, we are well positioned to increase shipments meaningfully against strong underlying demand. Margins were up 230 basis points year-over-year, primarily driven by improving supply chains, positive price cost dynamics, mix and investments in productivity initiatives. Clean Energy and Fueling declined by 3% on an organic basis. Revenue is up in clean energy components, vehicle wash, fuel transport and below-ground retail fueling, offset by the expected comparable decline in dispenser and EMV card reader demand. The upcoming second quarter comp is the last of material EMV volume. We remain constructive on the business for the full year as order activity in March was healthy. Despite the lower volume, margins in the quarter were up 120 basis points on positive mix and price cost as well as improved comparable cost structure from previously announced cost reduction actions taken in the retail fueling business. Imaging and ID posted a solid quarter, up 8% organically on broad-based strength in our marking and coding printers, spare parts and consumables. Our serialization software business continues to perform well and win new accounts. Foreign exchange remained a negative headwind to absolute revenue and profits in this segment that drove a large base of non-U.S. dollar revenue. Margins in Imaging and ID were very strong at 24%, improving 260 basis points on volume, conversion, pricing actions and mix. Pumps & Process Solutions declined 7% organically in the quarter, driven principally by the post-COVID transition in the biopharma space. New orders for biopharma grew sequentially during the quarter as the impacts from inventory destocking begin to subside. At the current trajectory, we expect to have one more quarter of headwinds then inflect positively in the second half of the year. All the other businesses in this segment posted solid organic growth during the quarter with particular strength in precision components, industrial pumps, thermal connectors and polymer processing equipment. Operating margin was down against a peak comparable quarter in the prior year due to the mix effect from higher non-biopharma revenue. Top line and Climate and Sustainable Technologies continued its double-digit growth trajectory from the last two years, posting 16% organic growth. Demand trends remain particularly robust in heat exchangers and CO2 refrigeration systems, driven by global investments in sustainability. Beverage can making continued shipping deliveries against its strong backlog. Margins came in at 16% in the quarter, up 280 basis points year-over-year on strong volume conversion, productivity, positive price/cost and good mix of products delivered. I'll pass it to Brad here.

BC
Brad CerepakSenior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Thanks. Good morning, everyone. Let's go to Slide 6. The top bridge shows organic revenue growth of 3%, driven by increases in three of our five segments. Acquisitions contributed $19 million to the top line in the quarter. Foreign exchange translation was a substantial headwind at 2.5% or $52 million and impacted both our revenue growth and profitability. Foreign exchange headwinds resulted in $0.06 of negative EPS impact in the quarter. At today's prevailing rates, we expect these foreign exchange headwinds to subside as the year progresses against easier comps with roughly $0.10 of negative foreign exchange impact forecasted for the first half of the year and $0.05 of favorability in the second half. From a geographic perspective, the U.S., our largest market, was up 3% organically in the quarter. Europe and Asia were flat and down 4%, respectively, on timing, of comparable shipments. We expect organic growth in both regions for the full year. On the bottom chart, bookings were down year-over-year due to foreign currency translation, normalization of lead times across several businesses and a $90 million order de-booking related to a major retail refrigeration customer's decision to temporarily pause its new store expansion program. Now let's move to cash flow on Slide 7. Free cash flow for the quarter came in at $193 million or 9% of revenue. This represents a record first quarter free cash flow and was up over $200 million year-over-year. The first quarter is historically our lowest cash flow quarter due to seasonality of investments in working capital to support growth in the year ahead. As discussed previously, our supply chains are improving, we have been actively working to liquidate our working capital balances in 2023 and we are beginning to see the results materialize. We expect our working capital balances and particularly our inventories to reduce over the balance of the year and to be a significant driver of year-over-year cash flow. Excluding any impacts from acquisitions, we should materially pay down commercial paper balances over the next several quarters. As a result, we would expect interest expense to decline by $10 million between the first half and second half of the year. Our forecast for 2023 free cash flow remains on track for between 15% and 17% of revenue. I'll turn it back to Rich.

RT
Richard TobinPresident and CEO

All right. Let's go to Slide 8. Here, we show the growth in margin outlook by segment for 2023 that are underpinned by our current bookings and backlog trends. I'll make a few summary comments before I jump into the segments. First, our lead times have largely normalized across the portfolio. We highlighted in the chart our good backlog levels are primarily driven by a handful of operating businesses that are either long cycle in nature or experiencing secular growth where there is a supply-demand deficit or both. Next, our expectation going into the year was that order rates would normalize in an orderly fashion because the repaired supply chains removed the rationale for customers to order far in advance. Order rates in the first quarter were strong across most businesses which is a positive indicator for our full year revenue targets, which do not require us to be above one every quarter due to the aforementioned backlogs. We expect growth in Engineered Products to remain solid, driven by pricing carryover as well as pent-up demand and improved chassis availability in refuse collection vehicles. We expect trading conditions in aerospace and defense, industrial automation, and vehicle aftermarket to remain constructive following two years of excellent volume growth. Engineered Products are set to improve margins in 2023 on solid volumes, benefits from our recent productivity capital investments taking hold and positive price-cost tailwinds. Clean Energy and Fueling should grow low single digits organically, and solid demand in all businesses except aboveground dispensers. The constructive booking rates and customer sentiment in the dispenser business point to improvement from here with Q2 being the last quarter of negative EMV mix impact. For the year, we expect margin improvement in Clean Energy and Fueling volume recovery, improved mix, proactive restructuring actions in aboveground fueling, and we expect revenue and absolute earnings growth to be entirely second half weighted for this segment as EMV volume comps fade. Imaging and ID is expected to continue its mid-single-digit growth trajectory through the year. We see robust demand for our printers, consumables, and professional services, and the outlook for our software offerings is also strong after some recent customer wins. Full year margins should remain attractive for this segment. We project flat organic growth for the year in Pumps & Process Solutions. Quoting activity remains strong in industrial pumps, the plastics and polymers business continues to deliver against record backlog levels with particular strength in the U.S. and in China. The Witte Pumps acquisition provides much-needed capacity to our MOD business. Demand for engineered bearings and compressor components remains robust with a notable mix in order rates towards energy transition markets, such as hydrogen, LNG, and carbon capture. Thermal connectors continue to grow well into the double digits. In biopharma, we expect the business to remain at current conditions in the second quarter and return to growth in the second half of the year as order rates continue to improve. As we discussed during the Analyst Day, the long-term tailwinds for single-use components for biological drug manufacturing are robust. Our full year margin target for this segment is approximately 30%. The growth outlook for climate and sustainability technologies is solid as our businesses continue to ship against strong backlog levels. We are forecasting continued double-digit growth in both natural refrigerant systems and heat exchangers for heat pumps. We expect some second quarter headwinds in refrigeration cases due to the aforementioned debooking impacting fixed cost absorption, but we remain constructive on the overall demand and continue to expect our multiyear journey of margin improvement for the business. Beverage can making is booked for the next several quarters, and we have some very interesting opportunities in the pipeline. We expect continued margin improvement in 2023 on volume conversion, productivity gains, and mix. Go to Slide 9. Here, we show the range of new-to-market products and the status of some of our important expansion projects that allow us to sustain our competitive advantages in our marketplaces. We are very bullish on the long-term value creation opportunity for these new product launches. You'll see each of these products touch sustainability, digitization, or biopharma and hygienic applications. Our growth and capacity expansion projects are progressing well, whether behind our heat exchangers, natural refrigerant systems, or biopharma businesses. Each of these applications are growing in double digits. Over the long term, these will be important drivers of our underappreciated organic growth story. Our previously announced restructuring within the retail fueling segment is on track as we transform this business model. We also took some incremental footprint restructuring actions in retail fueling in Europe in the first quarter, and we have several ongoing projects across other operating companies as well. Let's wrap up on Slide 10. Dover's portfolio consists of a range of niche middle market industrial franchises with significant diversification from a product and end market exposure perspective, many of which we believe are secular growth tailwinds. Our supply chains are not overly complicated, and our manufacturing operations are lean and getting leaner. We believe our diverse end market exposure together with our flexible operating model and value-added center-led initiatives will continue to be a competitive advantage for us regardless of the macroeconomic environment. We believe that we have line of sight for our full year forecast and a range of available cost levers to ensure we deliver. With that, we are maintaining our full year 2023 guidance. So let's go to Q&A.

Operator

Our first question comes from Jeff Sprague with Vertical Research Partners.

O
JS
Jeff SpragueAnalyst

Rich, as Brad pointed out, if you get these inventories normalize, the cash comes through, you deleverage pretty quickly. I just wonder what you're seeing on the M&A side of the equation and are there things that are actionable in the pipeline in 2023 in your view? And also just wonder if you'd comment on potential interest in Carrier's refrigeration business, which was discussed on us this morning.

RT
Richard TobinPresident and CEO

I'll take the second one first. I know, I think it's just a purchase, I would say no, but I think that's early days to see what happens in the space. Any activity in the space in total is interesting. I'll leave it at that. In terms of M&A, yes, we took some cost in Q1 around inorganic activity. So, I guess that's an indication that we're working on some things that we hope to get across the line. I can tell you, overall, there's not a lot coming to market for all the reasons we can understand. But the good news is that multiples are now converging with the public markets and the lack of private equity participation is helpful. So more to come, but I think that we're pleased with what we got going on in the pipeline.

JS
Jeff SpragueAnalyst

And then just on this debooking, I mean, are you seeing any other signs that retailers are just wavering either on new stores or remodeling or do you think this is truly a one-off? And I think you said you expect it to actually rebook at some point later in the year.

RT
Richard TobinPresident and CEO

Yes. This was primarily one specific customer reevaluating their strategic intentions. We anticipate this process will take about four to six months, and then we will reassess. We could have postponed it and left it in backlog, but that would have created issues with inventory in our planning process. Therefore, we decided to remove it from backlog; it is an isolated case. Currently, I hear from our clients that they are still facing challenges in obtaining labor and are frustrated with the rising costs associated with their builds, but they remain interested in proceeding with projects. So, the demand is still robust. This situation is more about a strategic matter rather than a commentary on the overall market.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Steve Tusa with JPMorgan.

O
ST
Steve TusaAnalyst

Can you discuss what you expect for the second quarter? I believe you mentioned some of the organic growth rates in the 10-Q. It seems stable overall, but we need to consider the debooking in the refrigeration business. Is that how we should approach organic growth in the second quarter? I understand the comparisons are quite varied these days, but could you provide some insights on the sequential trend?

RT
Richard TobinPresident and CEO

Yes. I mean I think that we would have expected to build some of that product in Q2. So, that's a bit of a headwind there. But quite frankly, the bigger issue for Q2 is the last remaining quarter of bio and EMV. So to me, Q2 is always going to be, from a comp point of view, sort of like Q1 to a certain extent, but we really feel good about the back half of the year because the comps roll forward and all of the bottom below the line charges, call it that, for a lack of a better word, actually roll positive. So yes, I mean, Q2 should look a lot like Q1 relative comp to comp.

ST
Steve TusaAnalyst

Relative to previous quarters, it seems that we typically see an increase in earnings per share from one quarter to the next. Should we factor in normal seasonal trends and adjust for the door cancellation?

RT
Richard TobinPresident and CEO

No, I mean, I wouldn't get too hung up on trying to monetize the math on the door cancellation. It is a bit of a headwind in Q2. What I'm saying is, if you look at Q1 to Q1, Q2 is going to be similar in terms of Q2 to Q2 comp. There's a step up in volume there.

BC
Brad CerepakSenior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Yes. So, I would say the historical first half to second half is not applicable at this stage. It's a little bit more to the back half as we said before, Steve.

ST
Steve TusaAnalyst

Okay. That makes sense. Rich, do you have any updates on price cost for the year? What are you observing in those numbers?

RT
Richard TobinPresident and CEO

I think we're not really taking any more meaningful price action. I mean, I think in certain areas, yes, but I mean, I think we're happy to just continue to get what's already baked into the system.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Andy Kaplowitz with Citigroup.

O
AK
Andy KaplowitzAnalyst

Rich, so, I know how much you love talking about orders, but let's do that. If we exclude the order reversal in climate, your book-to-bill was over 1 in Q1, and you're on pace for an order number closer to $8 billion in the numbers we discussed last quarter. I think you said that order lead times have already mostly normalized. So at this point, is it looking more likely that you'll not go back to that sort of more normalized backlog at least this year and the book-to-bill may remain healthier than you previously thought?

RT
Richard TobinPresident and CEO

Oh, boy. Orders in Q1 were better than we had modeled. And interestingly, just to give a little color of it, it was all in March. So it was tracking the way that we thought it was going to track. We would expect it to be below one in Q1 just because of the size of the backlog and the non need to order so far in advance, but March was very healthy. So it's early days. If that pace keeps up, that's great for our full year volume forecast, but like I said before in the comments, we don't need to be above one every quarter for the balance of the year to hit our numbers. So, it's early days. I think that overall, we're pleased with the book-to-bill of Q1 because it's a little bit better than expected. Remember, but you have to recall, remember numerator and denominator Q2 and Q3, we step up on the shipment side, right? So you need almost a greater inflection of orders to stay above one from there. So, we'll see how it goes, but will take better-than-expected book-to-bill in Q1.

AK
Andy KaplowitzAnalyst

Yes, that's helpful, Rich. And then maybe just on CST, again, you obviously still have very high backlog coverage. Even with the debooking. So when you look at the business, I know you're still forecasting mid-single-digit growth about the Q2 issue. But is that mid-single-digit growth really more of a minimum given sort of the capacity additions you've got and the strength in heat exchangers and CO2 systems? And how durable is the growth you think as you go forward, even if economic conditions get a little more difficult?

RT
Richard TobinPresident and CEO

Well, we're very prospective on the CO2 systems and on the heat exchanger side, which is the reason that we're expanding capacity. So that capacity is going to take basically the balance of the year to progressively come online. We probably could sell some of that capacity if it was in place now, but we think that we still in the March in terms of our capacity build versus our competitors there. So, we're bringing it online as fast as we can, but you can't sacrifice quality, and there's a variety of other things that you need to do to get it done. The swing factor will be, as I mentioned in the comments, that we have some interesting projects in Belvac, which we would expect Belvac to cycle down some in Q2, which I think we talked about at the beginning of the year. If we were able to book that, that would be a positive in terms of back-end growth. And look, at the end of the day, we expect to rebook the refrigeration business in the second half of the year. But I will tell you that, that cost structure of that business is much more flexible than it's been in the past. So even if we were to miss a little bit in terms of the top line growth there, I don't think that we're going to see the margin dilution that you would have seen historically.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Joe Ritchie with Goldman Sachs.

O
JR
Joe RitchieAnalyst

So first question, I guess, maybe just following up on Andy's question on orders. Rich, what's the price positively in March from an order standpoint?

RT
Richard TobinPresident and CEO

North American dispensers showed a positive surprise, which we didn't expect to improve until the second half of the year. Regarding heat exchangers, we could secure enough orders to fill our backlog for the rest of the year if we wanted to. The performance of printing ID in Q1 has been excellent with an impressive 8% growth rate and strong margins, which is broader across our portfolio. We are particularly pleased that biopharma has started to improve, especially as our customers are now reporting their earnings. We were ahead of the curve regarding destocking, so we feel optimistic about this turning point in the second half of the year. Additionally, we have a more favorable outlook on retail fueling than the market might expect, and if March orders are any indication, we are confident in our full-year estimates.

JR
Joe RitchieAnalyst

Awesome. No, that's great. And it's a good segue into biopharma, right? So, it seems like you're probably at a trough margin for the segment in Q1, I think you're still expecting the margins for the year to be pretty much flat year-over-year versus last year. So that would imply a pretty significant improvement from here. How do you think about the cadence of that improvement over the coming quarters?

RT
Richard TobinPresident and CEO

Well, I mean, the negative comp is less so in Q2 than Q1. It was pretty significant in Q1, as you can see from the margin performance. It's still negative in Q2 and it reflects positively in the second half. The interesting part about it is we really never lost operating margin on the lower volume. We actually preserved margins. We just lost all of the volume and all the gross margin associated with that volume. So the more interesting thing about targeting 30% for the full year is that the balance of that segment is growing very well, and it's dilutive to biopharma. So to get to 30%, it implies some amount of growth in the second half of the year at some healthy biopharma margin. But more importantly, as we went through in the Investor Day, if we strip out the COVID, the core business is growing 20%. So, if we get some growth in the back end, it's margin accretive and as we roll into '24, if we can keep on that trajectory then it becomes meaningful in terms of absolute profits and margin. But what I don't want to do is to tuck down the growth rates of the rest of the segment from a mix point of view because if they grow significantly themselves and you're going to have a little bit of a margin mix drag, but in absolute profits, we will take it.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Andrew Obin with Bank of America.

O
AO
Andrew ObinAnalyst

Brad, I have a question. Now that you are a company focused on HVAC heat pumps, can we discuss swap a bit? I believe Carrier recently mentioned that the market for European heat pumps is expected to triple. You have pointed out the additions to swap capacity as a key area for your company’s expansion. You also mentioned potential order growth in this sector. Do you have sufficient capacity to meet the demands of this tripling market? Additionally, how do you view the potential for increased competition affecting the market, considering you and Alfa Laval are currently at the forefront?

RT
Richard TobinPresident and CEO

We have not had the time to fully understand what Carrier has presented regarding the marketplace. Therefore, I will refrain from commenting on that for now. However, we have been engaged in the growth of the European heat pump market for several years. We are actively working on increasing our capacity. Our goal is to boost capacity by 50% for SWEP in early 2024. Part of gaining market share involves having the necessary capacity, ensuring product quality, and setting competitive prices. That’s our approach. We anticipate being a part of any future growth estimates for heat pumps, but we believe this trend extends beyond Europe. We expect this technology to spread globally, primarily driven by regulations, which is why we are expanding our capacity not only in Europe but also in Asia and the United States.

AO
Andrew ObinAnalyst

You would agree on the impact of order rates and the normalization of the supply chain. It seems you're beginning to free up working capital. What are your thoughts on balancing the state of the economy, credit availability, and overall order rates for the industrial economy? I believe you have valuable insights from the past 24 months regarding this dynamic.

RT
Richard TobinPresident and CEO

Yes, I can't remember the Sammy Hagar song about like one foot on the gas and one on the brake. That's the way we're trying to run it here, right. That meaning that there's a lot of macro uncertainty in the marketplace, we think that we've got some tailwinds. But we can't just be blind, of not watching our own balance sheet. And quite frankly, we've been carrying excess inventory for two years around here. So, it was natural for us to kind of liquidate. Our watch points are the businesses that we have that are subject to constriction in credit. So to pick one and not to be overtly negative here, I mean, our car wash business requires is largely driven in a certain way of entrepreneurs getting loans and building out carwash. Well, the fact of the matter is that credit is going to be tightened. Now, does that open up the door for our big retail clients to now meaningfully move into the carwash space? We'll see. So, there's a lot of moving parts here. At the end of the day, in my personal view, it's going to be a consumer-driven recession, and in which I think that we're going to get. I think, whether that negativity is fully offset by the amount of capital that is going into kind of the regulatory regime or reshoring or a variety of other tailwinds that we talked about during the Investor Day, our position right now is, yes, all right. But that implies really no degradation of the macro in a meaningful way from here kind of like a slow let the air out of a balloon as opposed to a shock. So, we're going to have a management meeting here as soon as this Q&A is done, and part of what we're going to do is basically go business by business and say, all right, what's your plan to meet your numbers for the year and what's your plan, if we run into trouble, right. We've got we have no choice but to run the corporation that way.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Mike Halloran with Baird.

O
MH
Mike HalloranAnalyst

By the way, regarding the last question, how are you all viewing the larger capital expenditures? Are you noticing any changes in purchasing patterns related to the later or longer cycle items? While the current booking climate may not reflect any significant shifts, is there anything notable on that front?

RT
Richard TobinPresident and CEO

Well, we're modeled in a reduction in CapEx in beverage can making, right after going we had a pretty good three-year run of a lot of build out there and if you go look at what the big can makers are saying they're kind of pausing and getting their footing together. But that was modeled into our forecasts. And heat pumps, I think, the issues is your, so we'll leave that alone for the time being. On the retail fuelling side, it's actually the amount of negativity around that I think is overcooked, because we do see a lot of CapEx still there. We still expect a lot of consolidation there, which drives CapEx when those retail operations are, you basically have taking smaller stations and building much more larger complex stations, which is good for us. But Mike at the end of the day, plastics in terms of raw production of capacity expansion, particularly in Asia and North America is quite good despite energy costs moving up a little bit. So, the watch points for us is more credit tightness and how that affects CapEx for kind of not for big OEMs but for kind of like the second layer, that's where we think there may be some tightness. It's been relatively stable.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Julian Mitchell with Barclays.

O
JM
Julian MitchellAnalyst

One point I just wanted to check in on was on DEP, which I don't think has got much attention yet. But you had a very good margin expansion year-on-year, in the first quarter down sequentially. Just trying to understand sort of as we think about margins for the year that they're growing, I think for the year as a whole. Is that all kind of first half loaded? Do you think we should see decent margin expansion as you move through the year? And is the sort of the flattish vehicle aftermarket guide, does that have any margin impact or it's a sort of similar margin to the segment?

RT
Richard TobinPresident and CEO

The margins should go up into Q4. So you're rightly, if you go back and look at Q4 margin, we would expect Q1 margin to come down solely on production performance. So, we would expect it to come down but from a comp point of view from here, we'd expect to have accretive margins up until Q4 and then we'll see how we end the year because I think our margins are quite robust. On the vehicle, calling that market flat, right, so it's not a negative in terms of consolidated margin from the segment instead that's more of a top line comment, as opposed to a margin comment.

JM
Julian MitchellAnalyst

That's helpful. For my follow-up, I know you attempted to provide some insights on Q2 when asked, and we've received numerous questions regarding your commentary on the second quarter. I was wondering if you could elaborate on that second quarter outlook. You mentioned that EPS in Q1 increased by low single digits year on year, so does the second quarter appear to be similar in terms of year-on-year performance?

RT
Richard TobinPresident and CEO

I believe the performance in terms of revenue and margin looks similar when comparing quarter to quarter. However, we faced an $0.08 EPS headwind due to issues below the line, which we expect to diminish. I won’t provide specific EPS guidance for each quarter, but if you analyze the performance from Q1 to Q1 and Q2 to Q2, they should appear comparable, likely without some of the headwinds we experienced from the below the line factors.

Operator

Thank you. Our final question will come from Scott Davis with Melius Research.

O
SD
Scott DavisAnalyst

A lot of territories been covered here, so I don't want to beat a dead horse. But Rich, would it be fair to say, you know, you said earlier that better than expected book-to-bill in the quarter that that comment is clear, but was it also better than expected price in that book-to-bill in the quarter? I mean, piecing it together, it sounds like the answer's yes, but I haven't explicitly heard you say that.

RT
Richard TobinPresident and CEO

No, but the price that we have, the price that the accretion from price overall is just peanut buttered over what we see the sequential revenue growth is for the full year. And so, it's not as if we've put new pricing out there. And so that book-to-bill is kind of more accretive than what we have modeled, at the end of the day, I'd have to go back and take a look in terms of mix but as you can imagine around here, calculating mix effect on that many revenue streams is a bit difficult. But overall, Scott, it was, we knew we were carrying big backlogs into '23 and we knew, and our customers knew that our lead times were coming down quite a bit. So we would expect it kind of to do more of a bleed off of not necessarily the backlog, but it would reflect it in the lower order rates. But you know, like I said, in March we had a pretty good inflection in terms of orders, which allowed us to get above one because as I mentioned with the back, what we've got modeled in for backlog depletion. We don't need to be above one this year and that's why we're trying to kind of coach everybody into, let's not panic if we don't do above one. We don't need to be above one to hit our numbers.

SD
Scott DavisAnalyst

Yes, that's clear. Okay. I'm going to keep it at that guys. You answered everything else. I appreciate it and best of luck.

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Richard TobinPresident and CEO

Yes, thanks.

Operator

Thank you. That concludes our question-and-answer period and Dover's first quarter 2023 earnings conference call. You may disconnect your line at this time and have a wonderful day.

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