David Messenger
Analyst · JP Morgan. Please go ahead
Thank you, Rob. During the third quarter of 2022, net income increased 27% year-over-year to $144.5 million from $114 million, while earnings per diluted share of $4.44 increased 34% from $3.31 in the year ago period. Pretax income was $172.1 million, a year-over-year increase of 18%. Home sales revenues for the third quarter grew to $1.1 billion, a 22% increase, compared to year ago levels. This improvement in revenues was driven by an 8% year-over-year increase in our average sales price to 425,000 and home deliveries of 2,630, a 13% year-over-year increase. In the third quarter, net new contracts across our footprint were 1,318. As Dale previously mentioned, this decline was primarily due to the impact of the sharp increase in interest rates had on potential homebuyers. Versus the prior year, our quarter-end backlog decreased 29% to 3,455 homes valued at $1.4 billion, while the average prices of our homes and backlog increased by 1% year-over-year. In the third quarter, adjusted homebuilding gross margin percentage was 26%, compared to 27.2% in the prior year quarter. Homebuilding gross margin was 24.8%, compared to 25.7% for the same period last year. SG&A as a percent of home sales revenue was 9.9% in the third quarter, compared to 9.8% in the prior year. Pre-tax income margin was 15%, consistent with the prior year quarter. Given the slowdown in home sales, we have taken steps to adjust our staffing levels in order to reduce our fixed costs. Specifically, at the beginning of October, we reduced our staff by approximately 12% and expect to incur about $2 million of severance related costs. We incurred close to $6 million of other expenses quarter, approximately 5 million was from the write-off of deposits, feasibility expenses, and losses on the disposition of assets with the remainder, primarily from consulting expenses related to the Federal 45L tax credits. During the third quarter, financial services generated 23.3 million in revenues, compared to 29.1 million in the prior year quarter. Business captured 66% of the closings and contributed $9.3 million in pretax income, compared to 11.4 million in the prior year quarter. The decrease in pretax income, compared to the prior year period was primarily due to fewer loan originations, compared to the prior year and signed loans into the secondary markets at normalized margins this year versus 2021. In the third quarter, our tax rate was 16%, compared to 21.8% last year. The decrease was driven by the extension of the Federal 45L tax credit for building new energy efficient homes under the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, which was enacted in August. During the quarter, we maintained our quarterly cash dividend of $0.20 per share and invested $22.3 million in repurchasing 5,825 shares of common stock at an average price of $44.58 per share leaving approximately 1.5 million shares available for repurchase under our current authorization. As a reminder, in the first half of this year, we invested 98.3 million in repurchasing 1.8 million shares of our common stock. Combined, these share repurchases have reduced our share count by approximately 7%. Our homebuilding debt-to-capital ratio was 36.3% at quarter-end, compared to 37.1% as of the end of the second quarter of 2022. Our net homebuilding debt-to-net capital ratio was 32.5%, compared to our second quarter 2022 levels of 33.6%. We would expect our net homebuilding debt ratio to decrease over the next several quarters as we continue to limit spending on land acquisitions, match our starts with our sales and reduce our WIP inventory as we deliver homes already under construction. We ended the quarter with a strong financial position, including $2.1 billion in stockholders equity, a 17% year-over-year increase and $817 million in total liquidity. Our return on equity also remained near the top of the industry at 33.2%, which was above the 30.5% we generated in the year ago quarter and represented our fifth consecutive quarter with a return on equity in excess of 30%. Given the continued industry-wide slowdown in current activity, we are reducing our full-year home delivery guidance to 10,000 to 10,500 homes and home sales revenues to $4.2 billion to $4.4 billion. We ended the quarter with a strong balance sheet and ample liquidity, which positions us well to continue to navigate this current market cycle. With that, I'll open up the line for questions. Operator?