Jeffery Taylor
Analyst · Stephens
Thanks, Brent, and good morning, everyone. Let's -- I'll start on Slide 4. On a consolidated basis, second quarter revenue was $626 million, an increase of $13 million or 2.2% year-over-year. Revenue came in at the high end of our prior guide as a result of strong customer demand within Final Mile Products as well as growth within Diversified Products. Consolidated new trailer shipments were approximately 15,000 units during the quarter. While new trailer shipments were at the midpoint of our second quarter guidance, revenue was at the high end of our guidance as a result of increased average selling prices as we have recovered manufacturing cost increases from the prior year. Additionally, Diversified Products Group as well as Final Mile Products, both contributed strong non-trailer revenue during the quarter. In terms of operating results, consolidated gross profit for the quarter was $88 million or 14% of sales. Gross margin increased by 10 basis points year-over-year as a result of successful efforts to stabilize the company's supplier base, balancing pricing cost as well as the execution of the Wabash Management System for long-term structural improvements. The company generated operating income of $48 million and operating margin of 7.6% during the second quarter. This compares to the second quarter of 2018 adjusted earnings per share of $0.49 per diluted share and represents an increase of 14% over the prior year quarter. SG&A for the quarter excluding amortization was $35 million or 5.6% of sales, somewhat lower than our expected full year percentage of sales due to the seasonally stronger revenue during the second quarter. Operating EBITDA for the second quarter was $61 million or 9.7% of sales. Intangible amortization for the second quarter was $5.1 million, roughly consistent with the prior year period and in line with our expectations. Interest expense for the quarter totaled approximately $7 million, a modest decrease over the prior year as a result of the retirement of our convertible bond debt in the second quarter of 2018, which was partially offset by the slightly higher interest expense on our floating rate term loan debt. We recognized income tax expense of $10.6 million in the second quarter, the effective tax rate was 25.6%, slightly lower than anticipated as a result of discrete items. Finally for the quarter, GAAP net income was $31 million or $0.56 per diluted share. This compares to the second quarter of 2018 adjusted EPS of $0.49 per diluted share and represents an increase of 14% over the prior year quarter. Let's move on to look at the segments. Slide 5, Commercial Trailer Products. Second quarter net sales were $401 million, which represents a $1.6 million or 0.4% decrease year-over-year on new trailer shipments of 14,250 units. New trailer average selling price, or ASP, increased over the prior year period by more than $2,000 per unit on pricing actions to mitigate the impact of higher material and operating costs. Commercial Trailer Products recorded gross and operating margins of 11.7% and 10%, respectively. Operating margin was down 10 basis points compared to the prior year period, primarily due to product and customer mix. Diversified Products Group, Slide 6, produced net sales of $97 million, a year-over-year increase of $2.9 million or 3.1% for the second quarter, primarily driven by an increase in tank trailer shipments and average selling prices as well as growth in our Process Systems business. As Brent mentioned, Diversified Products was able to generate a solid rate of revenue growth despite the divestiture of the Aviation and Transportation Equipment business in mid-January, which represents a mid- to -high single-digit percentage point drag on DPG's year-over-year growth. Diversified Products posted gross margin of 20.7% and operating margin of 9.2% during the second quarter. The 450 basis point improvement in operating margin as compared to the prior year period was driven by factors, such as product mix and progress made on price and cost, but also the longer-term initiatives tied to successful implementation of the Wabash Management System. Final Mile products, Slide 7. Net sales for the second quarter totaled $135 million, driven by strong market conditions as well as demand from customers who appreciate the operational and technology advantages Wabash brings to the truck body market. Gross and operating margin for the second quarter were 15.8% and 6.8%, respectively. The 150 basis point contraction in FMP's operating margin versus the same quarter a year ago was a result of product mix, higher employee-related costs and higher amortization expense versus the same quarter last year. Slide 8 shows the walk to free cash flow conversion on a year-to-date basis. With operating cash flow of approximately $61 million, roughly $15 million has been invested via capital expenditure, leaving $46 million of free cash flow, which converted at 101% of net income year-to-date through the second quarter. Moving on to our balance sheet and capital allocation strategy. Our liquidity or cash plus available borrowings as of June 30 was $307 million or 13% of trailing 12-month revenue. With regard to capital allocation during the quarter, we deployed $15 million for debt reduction on the term loan and invested $8.2 million in capital projects. Additionally, we returned $15.6 million of capital to shareholders via the quarterly dividend payment of $4.4 million and share repurchases of $11.2 million. At the end of the quarter, we had approximately $89 million remaining under our share repurchase authorization. Net working capital finished the second quarter up about $14 million from the prior quarter, primarily as a result of a decrease in accounts payable. Working capital ended the quarter at 8.8% of trailing 12-month revenue. We finished the second quarter with leverage ratios for gross and net debt at 2.6x and 1.9x, respectively. Moving on to Slide 9 with our outlook for 2019. Our outlook for margin remains consistent with our prior guidance. We continue to expect between 50 to 150 basis points of full year 2019 gross margin improvement. SG&A as a percent of revenue is expected to be slightly above 6% in 2019. We are currently estimating the effective tax rate for each of the remaining quarters to be approximately 26% to 27%, which would bring our full year effective tax rate to approximately 25%, given the lower effective tax rate during the first half. Full year capital spending is expected to be higher in 2019 compared to previous years as we continue to support the pipeline of productivity projects and new product commercialization identified across our business segments. In total, we estimate 2019 capital spending to be between $35 million and $40 million. As Brent mentioned, we are pleased to be able to raise the midpoint of our full year EPS outlook by $0.05 to $1.65 as a result of our strong financial performance in the second quarter. With 2 quarters in the books, we are also narrowing our full year EPS guidance range to $1.58 to $1.72. With our Final Mile business now a significant part of the portfolio, it's clear that Wabash National seasonality profile has been influenced by the addition of this business, and due to normal seasonality, we expect to see a step down in sales and margins heading into the third quarter. Our expectation is for third quarter revenue to come in between $570 million to $600 million with new trailer shipments of 14,000 to 15,000 units. Moving on to total company profitability. We expect operating margin in the third quarter of 2019 to increase in the range of 130 basis points to 170 basis points from the third quarter of 2018. In summary, we're pleased with the strong start to the year as demand remains robust, and our progress on short-term operating performance is combined with longer-term margin initiatives to generate year-over-year improvement. We continue to generate strong free cash flow conversion, and we'll proceed with our balanced capital allocation strategy that prioritizes debt payment, while continuing to invest in the business and maintaining our dividend. As we laid out at our Investor Day, we're excited for the longer-term opportunities. We have to continue building on our achievements, executing on our strategy and becoming a stronger, more resilient company. We appreciate your interest and support for Wabash National and look forward to having the opportunity to communicate further progress on our financial goals throughout 2019 and beyond. I'll now turn the call back to Rusty, and we'll open it up for questions. Thank you.