Vance Johnston
Analyst · Exane BNP Paribas
Thanks, John and good morning, everyone. Before I discuss our second quarter and outlook for fiscal 2021 in more detail, as a reminder, my discussion today will focus on our adjusted non-GAAP results. Please see today's press release for more details on our financial performance and our methodology when calculating non-GAAP results. AS John mentioned, we are pleased with our second quarter performance with strong year-over-year revenue and profitability growth compared to the second quarter of fiscal 2020, which was heavily impacted by COVID-19. Our financial performance also increased sequentially from Q1, as our results continued to reflect record revenue per unit driven by the enhancements we've made to our buyer platform, including tools like 360 View, growth in our global buyer network, improved [Technical Difficulty] as well as favorite macro conditions, including elevated used-vehicle price. For the second quarter, consolidated revenues increased 50% to 445.1 million compared to the prior year period. Organic consolidated revenue, which excludes the impact of foreign currency, increased 48% to 439.2 million, consisting of an increase in volume of 22.9%, primarily due to higher vehicle miles traveled against a pandemic impacted Q2 last year, as well as higher revenue per unit of 20.4%. Service revenues increased 44.4% to 382.5 million compared to the second quarter of fiscal 2020 and vehicle sales increased 95.6% to 62.6 million. The increases in both service revenues and vehicle sales were primarily due to higher revenue per unit and higher volumes. The vehicle sales were also positively impacted by an international provider switching from a consignment model to a purchase vehicle model in the fourth quarter of 2020. The total loss ratio was 19.4% compared to 19.5% in the second quarter of fiscal 2020. Sequentially, revenue increased by 5.1%, compared to the first quarter of 2021. Looking at our geographic performance, revenues increased in both our US and international segments were driven primarily by higher revenue per unit. Both segments also saw a higher mix of vehicle sales but to a lesser extent in the US compared to international. While the US economy opened up substantially in the past quarter, Canada and the UK were still under more severe restrictions for much of the quarter. Gross profit increased to 195.9 million from 111.7 million in the second quarter of fiscal 2020, primarily due to higher revenue per unit, higher volume, and the benefits from our margin expansion plan. Gross margin increased 640 basis points versus the prior year to 44% from 37.6% in the prior year. Sequentially, gross profit increased by 13.4% and gross margin increased by 320 basis points. At the end of the quarter, we did start to see some inflationary impact on our towing costs and we do expect towing costs to be higher in the second half of the year, which is reflected in our updated guidance. SG&A expenses were 43.7 million compared to 34.3 million in the prior year. Adjusted SG&A expenses were 43.3 million, an increase of 31.6% compared to adjusted SG&A of 32.9 million in the prior year period. The increase is due mainly to higher incentive-based compensation related costs. Adjusted EBITDA increased by 93.4% to 152.6 million from 78.9 million in the second quarter of fiscal 2020. Excluding the impact of foreign currency, organic adjusted EBITDA increased by 92.1% to 151.6 million for the second quarter of fiscal 2021. Interest expense increased by 8.1 million to 21.9 million compared to 13.8 million in the second quarter of fiscal 2020. The increase was primarily driven by the 10.3 million loss on early extinguishment of debt in conjunction with the company's refinancing in the quarter, offset by lower interest rates on floating rate debt. Nearly all this 10.3 million expense was non-cash. As a reminder, on April 30, we executed a new senior secured credit facility consisting of a $650 million term loan and a 525 million revolving credit facility, both maturing on April 30, 2026. As expected, this facility reduced the interest rate on our floating rate debt in Q2 by 50 basis points and we continue to expect full year cash interest savings of approximately 4.5 million as a result of this new facility. The effective tax rate was 24.7% versus 24.4% in the second quarter of fiscal 2020. Net income increased by 149.7% to 82.9 million from 33.2 million in the prior year. Adjusted net income increased by 154.9% to 93.3 million or $0.69 per diluted share, compared to 36.6 million or $0.27 per diluted share in the second quarter of fiscal 2020. Turning to our balance sheet and cash flow. Net cash provided by operating activities for the quarter with 129.4 million. Capital expenditures for the quarter were 27.5 million compared to 11.5 million in the prior year. The increase was driven by a land purchase during the quarter and higher technology spending. We ended the quarter with net debt of 894.4 million and a net leverage ratio of 1.8 times. We have reduced net debt by approximately 375 million since the time of the spent. Total liquidity was 801.5 million, which is nearly triple the level of liquidity we had at the time of the spent. In the first six months of fiscal 2021, we generated free cash flow of 192.9 million, compared to 195.2 million in the prior year period. This slightly lower free cash flow in 2021 is driven by higher capital expenditures. Turning now to our outlook for fiscal 2021. First, a reminder, the fiscal 2021 is a 53-week year with an extra week in the fourth quarter. Second, I do want to reiterate that our guidance assumes that there isn't a spike in COVID-19 cases in the countries we operate in and would have a significant negative impact on our results. As John mentioned, we are raising our outlook for fiscal 2021 incorporating our better than expected Q2 performance, as well as our view of the remainder of the year. While we continue to expect to see revenue per unit moderate in the back half, the degree of moderation is somewhat less than what our original guidance assumed. Our volume expectations in the second half are only slightly higher than they were a quarter ago, as miles driven trends have recovered slightly more quickly than we expected. For the year, we now expect organic revenue to increase 20% to 24% from fiscal 2020 revenues of 1.384 billion as compared to our prior expectation of 15% to 20% organic revenue growth. Organic adjusted EBITDA is now expected to increase 29% to 33% from fiscal 2020 adjusted EBITDA of 398.5 million versus our prior expectation of an increase of 23% to 28%. For the full year, we continue to expect interest expense of approximately 57 million to 59 million, which includes the Q2 write-off of deferred financing fees of 10.3 million. We also continue to expect our effective tax rate to be in the range of 25% to 25.5% and we now expect depreciation and amortization to be in the range of 82 million to 86 million. As noted in our press release, our Board of Directors approved a 400 million share repurchase authorization. A disciplined capital allocation plan is the foundation of how we run the company and returning capital to shareholders in the form of opportunistic share repurchases will be one aspect of this plan. Our philosophy on share repurchases is consistent with our overall philosophy on capital allocation. We will repurchase shares when we believe they are trading at a discount to intrinsic value with some cushion and when the return on investment from repurchasing shares is favorable to other potential capital deployment opportunities. We will not be targeting a certain amount of shares to be repurchased in any quarter, trying to offset dilution or managing EPS or to a targeted net leverage ratio. In closing, we're very pleased with our first half performance overall for fiscal 2021 and our entire team is focused on delivering on our operational and financial goals for the full year. With that, we will open up the call to questions. Operator?