Bob Schottenstein
Analyst · Alan Ratner with Zelman & Associates
Thanks, Phil and good afternoon. Thank you for joining our call to review our 2018 fourth quarter and full year results. 2018 was a strong year for M/I Homes, highlighted by record revenue, record homes delivered, record new contracts, a 17% increase in pre-tax income and a 49% increase in net income. More specifically, revenues reached $2.3 billion, 17% better than 2017. We closed 5778 homes, a 14% increase over 2017. We sold 5845 homes, 10% better than 2017 and pre-tax income before unusual charges improved by 13% to $154 million. Net income reached a record high of $108 million, 63% higher than 2017. We ended 2018 with a very strong backlog valued at $897 million, 13% better than at the end of 2017, and backlog units of 2194 homes which is 9% than at the end of 2017. In addition to our full year records, we also achieved record fourth quarter closings with 1825 homes delivered, 15% better than a year ago, and record fourth quarter revenues increasing 16% to $722 million. From a sales standpoint, I have a number of comments to make; first, we have achieved consistent, steady sales growth over the past 10 years, with a 12% compounded annual growth rate over that period. Our sales in 2018 were very strong in the first half of the year, and then began to trail off in the latter part of the year, as overall demand for new homes began to decline and we like our competitors experienced more (inaudible) conditions brought about from rising rates and pressures on affordability. As a result, our fourth quarter sales declined 4% year-over-year. The economic uncertainty and choppy conditions of late last year are, I believe still with us, though there does appear to be a bit more optimism, as we now begin the spring selling season. Our January sales were down 9% from a year ago, that said, it happened to be our second best January ever and we were dealing with a quite difficult comp from last January where our sales were up 24% in January of 2018. And I should also note that recent traffic trends suggest an uptick in traffic. In response to the more challenging housing conditions and concerns with affordability, we continue to experience very good market reaction to our smart series. As you will recall, we first introduced our more affordably priced Smart Series line of homes in Tampa in 2016. Since that time, we have expanded considerably the number of communities and markets where we offer the Smart Series line. By the fourth quarter of 2018, our Smart Series was offered in 10% of total M/I communities and in 10 of our 16 markets comprising more than 10% of total company sales. We are excited about additional Smart Series communities being rolled out in 2019, specifically by the end of 2019; we expect to be selling our Smart Series homes in 14 of our 16 markets and accounting for more than 15% of total company sales. Shifting now to our financial services segment; M/I Financial had an excellent year of 2018 setting records for loans originated as well as revenues. M/I Financial is and for many years has been a soundly managed operation and is very profitable for us. Derek Klutch, our President will report on these results in a few minutes. Our balance sheet and liquidity remained strong. We ended the year with a very healthy homebuilding debt-to-capital ratio of 44% and our net worth reached an all-time record of $855 million. We opened 67 new communities during 2018 and ended the year with 209 active selling communities. So, we are well positioned as we begin 2019. Now I’ll provide a bit more detail about our various markets, beginning with the southern region, which is comprised of our three Florida and four Texas markets. In the southern region, we delivered 760 homes during the fourth quarter and 2579 for the year, which was a 22% increase from 2017 and represented 45% of company total. New contracts in the southern region increased 1% for the quarter and 15% for the full year. The dollar value of our sales backlog in the southern region at the end of 2018 was up 15% and our controlled lock position in the southern region decreased 8% compared to a year ago. We had 90 communities in the southern region at the end of the year, which was an increase of 3% from a year before, and we are continuing to make real progress in growing our operation in Sarasota, Florida, which is the newest of our southern region markets, where in Sarasota we now have eight communities open and selling. And I should note we continue to make noticeable progress in our Texas markets with improving scale and improved financial performance in 2018. We also had very strong market positions in both Orlando and Tampa each continues to be a highly profitable operation for us. Next moving to the mid-west region which consists of Columbus, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Chicago, Minneapolis and Detroit. We had 769 deliveries in the mid-west in the fourth quarter and 2317 for the year which is a 21% increase from a year ago and 40% company total. New contracts in the mid-west were actually down 4% in the fourth quarter, but up 17% for the total year. Our sales backlog in the mid-west was up 19% from the beginning of the year in dollar value and our controlled lot position in the mid-west increased by 13% compared to a year ago. Both of which were positively impacted by our recent 2018 acquisition of Detroit. We ended the year with 90 active communities in the mid-west. This is a 30% increase from December of the year ago and that includes 12 communities in our newest market in Detroit. Overall, the mid-west continues to perform well for us with our Columbus and Chicago divisions especially solid and Minnesota achieving very sound and substantial growth. We are making good progress with our Detroit operation to-date and the market there remained solid. Finally, the Mid-Atlantic region, Raleigh and Charlotte have for many years been strong markets for us. Raleigh had another solid year in 2018, but did experience a fall-off in sales in closings as well we experienced a fall-off in sales in closing in Charlotte. Charlotte’s fall-off was primarily due to the ways in getting new communities online. We are working to open new replacement communities in both Raleigh and Charlotte in 2019. The DC market continues to be challenging for us. We have considerably reduced our investment level in DC as well as the number of active communities in that market. We ended the year with 29 total communities in the Mid-Atlantic region which is a 9% decline from the beginning of the year, new contracts in the Mid-Atlantics were down 14% for the quarter and sales backlog was down 10% from the start of the year. We delivered 296 homes in the Mid-Atlantic region for the fourth quarter, this was down 3% from a year ago and we delivered 882 homes in the Mid-Atlantic region for the full year, which represents 15% of company total. Our total controlled lots in the Mid-Atlantic region as of the end of the year decreased by 5%. Before turning the call over to Phil, let me conclude by saying, that housing conditions are clearly more challenging today than they were a year ago. Demand has softened, affordability is an issue, and we are likely to continue to seeing some margin pressure. With that said however, we enter 2019 with a very solid backlog, excellent communities and a number of planned new communities opening. We believe we are very well positioned as we begin 2019. With that, I’ll turn it over to you Phil.