Brad Meader
Analyst · Baird. Your lien is now live
Thanks, Ryan and good afternoon everyone. As Fred and Ryan have indicated, Q4 was another strong quarter. While total revenue of $356 million was down 12% versus pro forma Q4 2020 as a result of supply chain-driven drop in new sales, full year revenue of $1.48 billion was up 9% versus pro forma 2020. Despite the year-over-year decrease in Q4 total revenue, adjusted EBITDA was $96 million, a 15% improvement versus pro forma Q4 2020 and up 13% versus last quarter. Pro forma adjusted EBITDA for 2021 was $323 million, which includes approximately $10 million of charges taken in Q2, which we discussed in our previous calls. Without these charges, pro forma adjusted EBITDA for ‘21 would have been $333 million versus $295 million in 2020, a 13% improvement. Our 2021 pro forma adjusted EBITDA is above the midpoint of the guidance we previously provided. Reported net loss for the quarter was $3.7 million, an improvement of almost $17 million versus Q3. Pro forma gross profit, excluding rental depreciation, was $125 million and adjusted gross margin for the quarter was 35.1%, up nicely compared to 34.4% for Q3. The sequential margin improvement was primarily driven by the continued focus on pricing across our revenue segments and a slight change in revenue mix, with rentals accounting for 32% of revenue this quarter versus 31% for Q3. Pro forma gross profit, excluding rental depreciation, was $462 million for the full year, a 9% increase versus 2020. SG&A was $44 million for Q4 or 12.3% of revenues, which includes $4.6 million of share-based compensation expense. Turning to our segment results. Fred referenced our strong utilization within our ERS segment for the quarter, which was 83.7%, up from 70.2% for Q4 2020 and up from 81.4% for Q3 2021. Average OEC on rent was also up more than $48 million versus the previous quarter. On-rent yield was 39.4% for the quarter, up from 38% for Q3. Our OEC ended the year at $1.36 billion. Our team is doing an excellent job executing the pricing strategy we discussed during our Q3 call. There is still upside to be achieved upon contract renewals as we’ve only turned about 50% of the fleet today. We have seen the pace of contract churn slow recently. And as a result, we believe it will take a quarter or two longer than originally expected to see the full effect in our operating performance. All these factors combined to push ERS rental revenue, excluding asset sales, up more than 4% sequentially. ERS gross profit, excluding depreciation, was $88 million, up slightly versus Q3. Overall, ERS continues to see the benefits of the strong underlying end market fundamentals that Ryan discussed. TES performance for the fourth quarter was strong, but continue to be impacted by ongoing supply chain issues. Revenues of $177 million were down from $190 million in Q3. While revenue was down, our sales activity continues to be extremely strong with backlog growing by 22% sequentially to $412 million. Growth continues to be very broad-based across our product portfolio. While supply chain issues are resulting in a temporary impediment to our being able to fully take advantage of the strong demand, we believe the growth in the TES sales backlog primarily reflects growing demand for equipment as well as strong market share gains and our strong pricing discipline. We have been successful in countering inflationary pressures through the implementation of production efficiency initiatives put in place during 2021, in addition to passing through any net cost increases to our customers. Based on our analysis of backlog, we believe margin improvement is still possible even with the 5% to 7% underlying inflation. Overall, we are very happy with the performance of the TES business last quarter. Our APS business posted revenue of $34 million compared to $35 million in Q3. Gross margin, excluding rental depreciation, was 35%, a continued improvement from 28% in Q3. This improvement reflects the benefit of the actions we took earlier in 2021 to improve the APS cost structure. We continue to believe that APS presents an opportunity for us to capture a larger share of our customers’ wallet and strengthen our position with customers and suppliers alike. While this quarter reflects continued progress in this regard, we are dedicated to providing the resources necessary to execute a strong, profitable business plan. In addition to strong full year revenue and adjusted EBITDA growth, we continue to focus on maintaining a strong liquidity position and improving leverage while at the same time investing in the rental fleet and pursuing selective growth through M&A. We decreased the borrowings on the ABL by $11 million in the quarter with the outstanding balance ending at $394 million. At year-end, we had $347 million available under the ABL with the ability to upsize the facility if needed. I should note, we did use the ABL to fund the purchase of HiRail Leasing in January of this year, so the current balance is modestly higher than it was at year end. When using adjusted EBITDA of $333 million, we finished FY ‘21 with leverage just below 4x, a reduction of 0.3x from Q3. Approximately 3x leverage remains an achievable goal of ours by the end of ‘22 or early ‘23, but we will also look to make incremental investments in prudent acquisitions if we believe they create long-term shareholder value. With respect to the outlook for ‘22, based on the continued market strength, our current backlog, expectations for supply chain, and our outlook for the rental fleet, we are providing the following guidance. We project total revenue to be between $1.57 billion and $1.75 billion and adjusted EBITDA between $385 million and $410 million. Our adjusted EBITDA guidance indicates year-on-year growth of 14% to 23%. Recognizing the various margin profiles of our three segments, we’re also providing segment level revenue guidance for the first time to provide added transparency to our outlook. We expect ERS revenue of $610 million to $650 million, TES revenue of $825 million to $950 million, and APS revenue of $130 million to $150 million. We aren’t providing specific guidance around cash flow, but we do expect to be cash flow positive in ‘22, excluding any incremental M&A while still making steady investments in the rental fleet. We believe that our FY ‘22 outlook reflects the overall strength of the market and continued tremendous efforts by our team to drive margin expansion, but adequately reflects the supply chain challenges we foresee for at least the first half of the year. In closing, I want to echo Fred and Ryan’s comments regarding the exceptional performance our team delivered this past year. They were asked to accomplish an incredible feat, execute a transformational integration, delivered double-digit adjusted EBITDA growth, expand margins in an inflationary environment not seen in over 40 years and continue to deliver the highest level of customer service. Truly remarkable. With that, I’ll turn it over to the operator to open the line for questions.