Robert Schottenstein
Analyst · Pilot Advisors. Your line is open
Thanks, Phil. Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us today. We had a very strong first quarter, one of the best first quarters in our company history, highlighted by record first quarter revenues and net income and an all-time record ending backlog units and backlog value. We continue to operate against the backdrop of unprecedented housing conditions. On the one hand, we are experiencing some of the toughest construction and development challenges our industry has seen with persistent labor and supply chain issues combined with unanticipated delays associated with land entitlement and land development. At the same time, demand for housing continues to be very robust. Although mortgage rates have increased considerably since the beginning of the year, demand for new homes across our markets remain strong. Many of the reasons behind the strong demand are well documented, including historically low inventory levels and an ever-increasing number of millennials moving to homeownership. Moreover, the quality of our buyers continues to be very strong with average credit scores of 747 and average down payments above 16%. Basically, the quality of buyers that we're seeing in terms of creditworthiness is the best we've ever seen. In terms of our performance, we achieved record first quarter net income of $92 million or $3.16 per diluted share, which is an 8% improvement in net income over last year's first quarter. We had record first quarter total revenue of $861 million, an increase of 4% from last year. We closed 1,823 homes in the quarter, a 10% decrease from a year ago with an average sale price of $457,000, which is an increase of 16% an average selling price. Decline in closings was largely due to the extended cycle times we are dealing with because of the aforementioned construction, labor and supply chain challenges that have impacted our entire industry. Pretax income increased 11% to $122.3 million, a first quarter record. Substantial growth in income was a result of a 40 basis point improvement in our gross margin over last year to 24.8% and our SG&A overhead expense ratio improving by 50 basis points to 10.5%. Our Financial Services segment also contributed to our positive results for the quarter, with pretax income of $13.1 million. As a result, our pretax income margin improved significantly to 14.2%, and we achieved a strong return on equity of 26% during the quarter. As mentioned, demand for new homes remains solid. We sold 2,514 homes during the quarter, a decline of 19% from the all-time record 3,109 homes that we sold during last year's first quarter. In this year's first quarter, we sold 4.8 homes monthly per community, well ahead of our sales pace in any prior first quarter over the last decade with the exception of last year. In terms of our sales, it's important to note that we are operating at 6% fewer communities than a year ago. And on top of that, we are limiting or capping our sales in nearly two-third of our communities in order to manage construction costs, deliveries and the timing of land development and lot availability. Our Smart Series, which is our most affordable line of homes, continues to have a very positive impact on our sales performance. During the quarter, our Smart Series sales comprised nearly 46% of total company-wide sales compared to 35% a year ago and 36% in 2020. We are now selling our Smart Series homes in 44% of our communities. As mentioned in previous calls, these communities often have more lots in total and in general, producing, on average, a greater sales pace, better gross margins, better cycle time and better bottom line returns. Company-wide, our backlog sales value at the end of the quarter was $2.8 billion, an all-time record and 17% ahead of the year ago. Our units in backlog increased by 1% to an all-time record 5,526 homes with an average selling price in backlog of $505,000, which is 16% higher than the average price in backlog a year ago. Our financial condition is very strong, with $1.7 billion of equity at the end of the quarter, which is an all-time record, and that equates to a book value per share of $60. We ended the first quarter with a cash balance of nearly $220 million and 0 borrowings under our $550 million unsecured revolving credit facility. This resulted in a debt-to-capital ratio of 29%, down from 32% a year ago and a net debt-to-capital ratio of 22%. Now I will provide some additional comments on our markets. We experienced strong performance from our divisions in the first quarter with substantial income contributions led by Dallas, Houston, Tampa, Raleigh, Chicago and Columbus. However, given that we are operating in fewer communities than a year ago and as I noted, that we are limiting sales in nearly two-third of our communities, new contracts for the first quarter in the southern region declined by 27% and by 9% in the Northern region. Our deliveries in the Southern region decreased by 13% from last year, and our deliveries in the Northern region decreased by 5% from last year. 58% of our deliveries came out of the Southern region to balance 42% out of the Northern region. Our owned and controlled lot position in the Southern region increased by 12% compared to last year and increased by 4% in the Northern region. 1/3 of our owned and controlled lots are in the Northern region, the other two-third in the Southern region. While we are selling through communities somewhat faster than expected, we fully expect to open a record number of new communities in 2022 and in addition to further grow our community count in 2023. We have a very strong land position. Company-wide, we own approximately 24,200 lots, which is roughly a three year supply. Of this total, 30% of the owned lots are in the Northern region where the balance is in the Southern region. On top of the owned lots, we control via option contracts and additional nearly 22,000 lots. So in total, our owned and controlled lots are [technical difficulty] which gives us significant flexibility to react in changes and demand or individual market conditions. At March 31, we increased our controlled lot position from a year ago by 9%. Before I conclude, let me just state that despite the construction, development and supply chain challenges, demand for new homes remains very strong. And our financial condition is as solid as [technical difficulty] as we have noticeable operating momentum in nearly all of our markets. Given our record backlog, our strong margins in backlog, along with our plans to open a record number of new communities this year, M/I Homes is very well positioned to have another year of strong results in 2022. And with that, I'll turn it over to Phil.