Rusty Rush
Analyst · Credit Suisse. Your line is open
Thank you, Steve. As indicated in our press release, we achieved revenues of $5 billion, and net income of $66.1 million or $1.61 per diluted share. For the fourth quarter, net income was $9.8 million or 24% per diluted share, on gross revenues of $1.2 billion. As anticipated, declines in the energy sector did have a negative impact on our overall financial performance in 2015. In the aftermarket, our parts, service and body shop revenues were $1.4 billion, with an annual absorption rate of 115.6%. During the fourth quarter, our aftermarket service revenues was $331 million or – on an absorption rate of $111.8 million. We began to see a significant negative impact of decreased energy sector activity through our parts and service revenues in October. This negative trend continued throughout the fourth quarter, as oil prices continue to fall, demand for aftermarket services in these rigs deteriorated. As a result, average aftermarket gross profit per day fell about 10% during the fourth quarter. We expect decreased activity in the energy sector will continue to negatively impact parts and service revenues throughout 2016. To help offset this decline in business we have implemented a broad and significant expense reduction plan across the company and continue to aggressively pursue initiatives to help generate incremental aftermarket revenues. When complete, we anticipate the expense reductions will help to offset about half the decline in the aftermarket gross profits. We believe that the typical seasonal increase and freight activity in incremental business from aftermarket initiatives will help replace the remainder of our decrease in the aftermarket gross profit. Turning to truck sales. We sold 16,874 new Class 8 trucks in 2015, accounting for 6.7% of the total U.S. Class 8 market. For most of the year, we were able to offset the significant decline in sales of energy related Class 8 new trucks with incremental, but lower margin truck sales to large over-the-road fleets. However, our Class 8 truck sales in the fourth quarter decreased about 28%, compared to the fourth quarter of 2014. In addition, used truck values decreased in the second half of 2015, due to a large supply of used truck inventory. As a result, we incurred a significant write-down for our used inventory values in the fourth quarter. We ended the year with our lowest used truck inventory levels of the year and we will continue to monitor used truck values and manage our used truck inventory closely in this very difficult used truck market. For 2016, ACT Research forecasts U.S. Class 8 retail sales will be 222,000 units, down 12.2% compared to 2015. Given the increased capacity, resulting from strong new truck sales market in 2015, decreasing freight trends, lower used truck values and ongoing softness in the energy sector, we believe Class 8 truck sales to be significantly less and currently forecast by ACT Research. Our Class 4-7 new truck sales, reached 11,241 units this year, up 13% over 2014 and outpaced the U.S. medium-duty market, which increased by 8.3% during the same timeframe. Rush’s Class 4-7 truck sales accounted for 5.2% of the total U.S. market, as we continue to stock ready-to-roll work trucks across the country allowing us to meet the needs of medium-duty customers benefiting from a healthy economy. Sales in the Class 4-7 new trucks to lease and rental, food and beverage industries, also contributed to our strong Class 4-7 new truck sales performance. ACT Research forecasts U.S Class 4-7 retail sales to be a little over 218,000 units in 2016, but relatively flat compared to 2015. We believe our Class 4-7 new truck sales will remain stable throughout this year. As in past years, we expect general and administrative expenses to be sequentially higher in the first quarter of 2016, due to employee benefits and payroll taxes. In the area of growth, we continue to invest in our long-term vision 2015. We acquired dealerships in Illinois, Georgia and Nevada expanding our network footprint to 21 states. New facility construction, renovation and expansion process, allowed us to increase service capacity in California, Ohio, Tennessee and Texas. We substantially completed the roll-out of our RushCare Rapid Parts call centers, began production of our new Momentum Fuel Technologies compressed natural gas fuel system and introduced a new telematics offering. We also implemented a new service management tool that will help provide real-time communication to customers with vehicles in our shops. Finally, I would like to thank all of our employees for their efforts this year and continued dedication to help keep our customers satisfied and up and running. With that, I will take the questions.