Yahoo Finance Pool Corporation (NASDAQ:POOL) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript
Pool Corporation (NASDAQ:POOL) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript April 25, 2024
Pool Corporation misses on earnings expectations. Reported EPS is $1.32 EPS, expectations were $1.86. Pool Corporation isn’t one of the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds at the end of the third quarter (see the details here).
Operator: Good day, and welcome to the Pool Corporation First Quarter 2024 Conference Call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. [Operator Instructions] After today's presentation, there will be opportunity to ask question. [Operator Instructions] Please note, this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Melanie Hart, Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Please go ahead.
Melanie Hart: Thank you, and welcome to our first quarter 2024 earnings conference call. Our discussion, comments and responses to questions today may include forward-looking statements, including management's outlook for 2024 and future periods. Actual results may differ materially from those discussed today. Information regarding the factors and variables that could cause actual results to differ from projected results are discussed in our 10-K. In addition, we may make references to non-GAAP financial measures in our comments. A description and reconciliation of our non-GAAP financial measures included in our press release are posted to our corporate website in the Investor Relations section. In order to assist our investors and analysts and following along with our earnings call comments, we have posted a brief presentation on our investor website.
It will summarize key points from our press release and call comments. We are now ready to begin the call with comments from Pete Arvan, our President and CEO.
Peter Arvan: Thank you, Melanie and good morning to everyone on the call. We released our first quarter results this morning, reporting $1.1 billion in net sales, our fourth consecutive year of achieving the $1 billion mark in a seasonally slower quarter. This was down 7% from the previous year but up 6% from 2021. Overall demand for pool-related maintenance products in the quarter was solid with sales ending roughly flat, which is a good result considering the poor weather that we experienced in Florida for almost the entire quarter. As you can imagine, in the first quarter, Florida is our largest market. We were also pleased with early buy activity, much of which we attribute to share gain given the return to more normal supply chain conditions.
On the new construction side of our business, a continuation of economic uncertainty, combined with elevated interest rates have further weighed heavily on new pool starts. Our builders are reporting that consumers remain interested in pools but as we have noted previously, lower-end pools remain a challenge, while demand for higher-end pools is steady, explaining the increased permit value on a per pool basis. Overall, we saw permits down 15% to 20% for the quarter, which is more than we anticipated for the year. We believe that easier comps and signs of the bottom of the trough that we are seeing in some markets will allow the full year construction level to be more in line with our previously stated full year expectation of flat to down 10%.
We have seen similar results in the first quarter on renovation and remodel but our builders are telling us that interest from consumers may be starting to rebound in key markets. Normally, we would expect it to take 60 days from the time we see permits improve to any meaningful change in purchase trends from the customer base in the affected areas. Keep in mind that historically, the first quarter has represented just under one-fifth of our total annual sales in a typical year. With the all-important second quarter ahead of us, our teams remain keyed into the start of the swimming pool season with their ability to fulfill demand needs better than anyone in the industry, in any environment. We all remain intensely focused on providing our best-in-class customer experience, expanding our integrated network and enhancing our industry-leading technology solutions.
Looking at our sales by major geographic markets, sales declined 9% each in Florida, Arizona and Texas, while California sales declined 4%, showing overall sequential improvements from the fourth quarter of 2023. As we mentioned on our year-end call, we saw a lot of rain in January and February in key markets. While March weather somewhat improved, it still carried above average rain in many areas. For the first quarter last year, we estimated approximately $60 million to $70 million impact from unfavorable weather, particularly in the Western US. We clearly see the weather recovery in California's first quarter results, which outperformed the other areas of the country. Conversely, in markets that experienced unfavorable weather comparisons this year such as Florida and the Southeast region of the US, we observed sales headwinds due to the limited ability for pools and outdoor living activity to jump off to a robust start or continue usage in the year-round markets.
Across the company, we participate in numerous trade shows and partner with our suppliers and customers to prepare for the season. From what we are hearing, there are -- there has been some consolidation amongst builders, some newer builders are exiting due to the challenging construction environment. This is resulting in some of our larger builders gaining share as you would expect. Typically, the newer builders were more heavily focused on industry-level pools, which as we have said, have been the most pressured. Related to our product sales mix, chemical sales were essentially flat for the quarter, up 1% in volume with a 2% deflationary impact on price, primarily from trichlor and commodities. This result reinforces our expectation that maintenance volumes will perform well even with the weather patterns and the industry conditions that were not ideal in many markets.
With a slow start, we did see instances of lower selling prices on trichlor around 5% lower than at the end of the year. At the current cost positions, we see these occurrences as minor top line pressure for the remainder of the year. Building materials sales were down 11% versus prior year, following the declining trend in new pool construction and deflationary impacts across several categories as freight costs passed down from the manufacturers have decreased. Although the number of new pools is down, our superior value proposition and extensive NPT network allow us to continue to expand our share in the strategic product category. Equipment sales showed an improved trend, decreasing 3% for the quarter versus the 9% decline in the fourth quarter of 2023 and showed some early signs of recovery in discretionary product demand like heaters and lights.
Looking across the major equipment categories, we see that despite a slow start to the pool construction season, our sales transfer for equipment seems much healthier than what new construction alone would dictate. Looking at our end markets. Our commercial business sales came in flat compared to last year's, 12% growth in the first quarter and better than the overall business as we further integrate our recent investments in our widespread distribution network and enhanced our service to commercial pool operators. Sales to our independent retail customers declined 4% in the first quarter, improving from an 8% decline in the fourth quarter of 2023, as we extend our reach and resources available to these customers. For our Pinch A Penny franchisee group, sales came in flat for the quarter.
Collectively, these results provide additional indication that maintenance remains stable and that our focused efforts in this critical area of the market support our ability to continue to gain share. In Europe, challenging weather and continued geopolitical uncertainty constrained sales in the first quarter, which declined 17% in local currency and 16% in US stock dollars. We completed important supply chain projects at the beginning of the year that will position us well in improving our overall product cost and fulfillment as we work to gain scale in Europe. For Horizon, net sales declined 6% in the quarter. Our irrigation business is more impacted by commodity pricing than the slimming pool business and the growth in our commercial irrigation continue to support our distribution business during the first quarter.
Gross margins came in at 30.2% versus the 30.6% in the first quarter of 2023. Going into the quarter, we expected about a 60 basis point headwind compared to last year, primarily related to the sell-through of lower-cost inventory in the first quarter of 2023. Melanie will walk you through the various components impacting margins as part of her financial commentary. Both our field and support teams did a good job managing expenses as the operating expenses increased just 2.5% in the first quarter. As we discussed on our fourth quarter call, we have several key areas where we continue to invest this year including our technology initiatives, customer experience enhancements and continued footprint expansion. At the same time, we continue to work on capacity creation.
In mid-February, we launched our POOL360 service platform. At our Investor Day, I was excited for my team to provide a deep dive into this innovative tool and demonstrate power that our customers will see from using the POOL360 ecosystem. Our technology and sales teams were on the ground doing exactly that during the quarter for both our customers and our field teams in preparation for the season. Orders processed through our traditional B2B POOL360 platform and continue to expand at close to 11% of total sales in the first quarter of 2024 growing from 10% in the first quarter of last year. Related to our POOL360 water test, we finished the first quarter with 2.5 times the number of customers on board than at the end of 2023 and this has translated into a similar increase water test perform versus the fourth quarter of 2023.
Our analysis of customer buying behavior confirms our assumptions of the power of POOL360 water test with our POOL360 water test customers private label chemical purchases up significantly versus the rest of the customer base. While in the very early stages, we are already beginning to see the positive impacts of our POOL360 service tool through volume growth in our private label chemical brands and revenue dollar growth in other products. Our customers are reporting very favorable feedback on the ecosystem and all it provides. Driving adoption of our POOL360 service application not only provides a meaningful differentiator and deeper relationships with our customers, but also adds capacity for our customers to grow their business, which we believe will drive additional growth for POOLCORP.
The progress among these tools reflects the collaborative efforts of our sales field and technology teams to roll out the new software and educate our customers and teams on these enhanced abilities. We continue to expand our network opening three new locations in the first quarter and acquiring one bringing the total sales center network to 442 locations. Our Pinch A Penny franchise network added five new stores including two as part of our focused expansion in the Texas market ending the quarter with a total of 290 franchise locations. Continuing to expand our franchise footprint geographically and our retail-edge programs are critical elements of our strategy to reach the attractive do-it-yourself maintenance market. We recorded $108.7 million in operating income in the first quarter of 2024.
Operating margins of 9.7% decline when compared to the 12.1% in the first quarter of 2023, but well exceed the pre-pandemic first quarter operating margins that ranged from 5.7% to 6.5%. Our increase in scale since that time shows the immense leverage attainable from top line growth focused cost management and disciplined execution. With the first quarter behind us, we are reiterating our full year EPS guidance range of $13.19 to $14.19, including an updated $0.19 estimate from the benefit of ASU. Looking forward, we see the primary challenges affecting our industry as being the macroeconomic picture. Without a doubt the decline in new pool construction creates a complex operating environment, but we are confident that this is just a cycle that will change just as we have seen in the past.
Remember pools are still highly desirable. The installed base continues to grow and the aftermarket upgrade opportunities are sizable. Demographic shifts will only help power these important trends for years to come. We are intensely focused on improving the customer experience capacity creation and building and launching our industry-leading digital ecosystem. We will continue to expand our network to position us to best serve the pros and support the retailers that cater to the DIY market. Gross margins remained the top priority for the team as well. We have identified comprehensive plans to achieve our goals and enhance our performance in this area. Our teams are committed and focused on supply chain efficiencies, private label product growth and pricing optimization along with our proven track record on execution.
With our robust cash flow generation, capital capacity and strong balance sheet, we will continue to be a disciplined capital allocator and a strategic growth investor. Through our team, we collectively work to provide the best service to our customers and exceptional returns to our stakeholders. I would like to wrap up by thanking the POOLCORP team for their continued persistence through our collaboration with our supplier partners and our customers we aim to provide -- we aim towards executing a successful 2024 swimming pool season. I will now turn the call over to Melanie Hart, our Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for her detailed commentary.
Melanie Hart: Thank you, Pete. Starting on Page 3 of our presentation, you will see our first quarter 2024 results at a glance, as reported in our press release. I'll begin my comments on Slide 4, as we discuss the components impacting net sales and gross margin in the quarter. Net sales of $1.1 billion declined 7% over prior year, which shows an improving trend from the 8.4% year-over-year decline in the fourth quarter of 2023. Positive price realization of approximately 2% was offset by continuing though modestly improving trends in new pool construction and remodel activity with estimated volume decreases of 15% to 20% on construction and around 10% on remodels, those translated into a 3% and 2% decline in consolidated sales compared to prior year.
We estimate weather impact primarily in Florida negatively impacted sales approximately 2% in the quarter. Chemical and commodity pricing continued to normalize and are estimated to have a 1% negative impact on sales for the quarter. Horizon and Europe sales declines in the quarter together had an approximate 1% effect on total net sales. While the quarter had the same number of selling days, March had two fewer days which had some impact on the quarter as we typically see an upward ramp into the season and March is by far the largest sales month of the first quarter. Gross margin for the quarter was 30.2% compared to 30.6% in the first quarter of last year. Gross margin in the first quarter of 2024 included a benefit of $12.6 million or 110 basis points related to estimated import taxes previously recorded, which was not considered in our latest discussions of expected first quarter margins as both the timing and the conclusion of this open area were not readily determinable.
As referenced on our call discussing fourth quarter 2022 results with supply chain normalization and a return to our domestic sourcing strategy, we do not expect significant impacts from import tariffs going forward. From a comparative standpoint, net resulting margin of 29.1% was down 150 basis points compared to prior year including the expected decrease from higher average cost inventory in 2024 compared to 2023. Other impacts include product mix as lower margin equipment sales outpaced higher margin building materials. Customer mix reflecting a greater proportion of sales to larger customers who participate in customer rebate programs and have volume-based pricing and an increase in customer early buys sold at special pricing including preseason pricing in a number of major markets resulting from the rainy and sluggish start to the season.
These were offset by a higher volume-based vendor incentives as purchasing patterns normalize in 2024. Main areas different from our expected 60 basis points decline as previously communicated were the lower building material sales and the higher mix of preseason pricing. On page 5 you will see our quarterly financial trends. Due to the seasonal nature of our business many of these metrics vary sequentially. Operating expenses as a percentage of net sales is typically highest in the fourth and first quarters due to the lower sales volumes. Operating expenses in the quarter were 20.5% and increased by $6 million or just under 3% over prior year. We continue to manage variable expenses to offset higher inflationary increases in rent, insurance and our first quarter merit wage increases.
As discussed, we continue making investments in our strategic technology and initiatives such as our Pool360 ecosystem. We added four new sales centers in the first quarter, three organic and one through acquisition and we are working to add another five new grew group sale centers prior to the peak season. For the quarter we reported operating income of $109 million compared to prior year operating income of $146 million. Lower levels of debt even with a higher borrowing rate resulted in a $2.4 million reduction in interest expense versus last year. Net income of $79 million compared to $101 million in prior year first quarter reflects lower operating income partially offset by lower interest expense and a lower effective income tax rate due to an increase in ASU tax benefit this quarter versus Q1 2023.
We realized a $0.19 benefit from ASU in the quarter up from the $0.10 we estimated in our guidance and compared to a $0.12 benefit in Q1 2023. We also realized a benefit of $0.24 from the reduced import tax amount recorded during the quarter. This resulted in diluted earnings per share for the quarter of $2.04 compared to $2.58 in the first quarter of 2023 a decrease of 21%. Moving to slide 6. Cash flow from operating activities increased to a first quarter record of $145 million an increase of $42 million over last year's first quarter. We continue to invest capital in technology development initiatives sale center network expansion and improvements and acquisitions closing on during the quarter. Our accounts receivable days outstanding of 26.9 days remain in line with typical preseason activity levels, including customer early buy programs and are in a good position as we enter the peak selling season and exit the portion of the year where our customers are typically more cash-constrained.
As we planned inventory levels continue to normalize, finishing the first quarter at $1.5 billion, $190 million lower than Q1 last year. The increase from year-end of $131 million is intended to prepare for the upcoming season and is fully offset by increased accounts payable. Our inventory days on hand have reduced from 142 to 132 and we expect to continue seeing this trend of lower comparative days as we lap last year's higher inventory levels through third quarter. We reduced our saving borrowings by $387 million compared to Q1 last year and $74 million from year-end, while continuing to make investments in the business. Our debt to EBITDA leverage ratio stands at 1.4 as of the end of the quarter slightly below our 1.5 to 2 times target providing significant growth investment capacity.
Our current quarterly dividend of $1.10 per share returned $42 million to shareholders. We also completed $10 million of open market share buybacks during the quarter and $50 million through our earnings call and of $284 million remaining under our share repurchase authorization. With the first quarter behind us and an early view to the start of the 2024 season, we maintain our full year guide of flat to slightly positive growth in 2024. Based on historic pre-pandemic seasonal sales pattern, our first quarter sales as a proportion of full year sales suggests this is a reasonable expectation. As we move further into second quarter and the beginning of the peak selling season, our visibility improves and we will have better insight into the full year after our second quarter.
The 1% to 2% annual benefit we could have achieved from normalized weather in the first two quarters has not been observed to-date. Therefore it is so uncertain that we would see a significant weather recovery for the full year. Our expectations for inflation for the year remain unchanged, as price benefits of approximately 3% on equipment has progressed as expected, slightly less on our remaining categories for an estimated 2% overall. Maintenance activity is tracking as expected and our volume expectations for renovation and remodel and new construction markets in the range of flat to down 10% remains reasonable at this point in the year. We still anticipate that Horizon in Europe could decline 5% for the full year. No significant contribution is expected from the additional selling days as they are late in the year.
We still anticipate full year gross margin to approximate 30%. We look for the increased activity across the industry to moderate some of the pre-season pricing activity combined with our supply chain and pricing strategic actions underway to realize the favorable seasonal benefits in second quarter. Our expectation for operating expenses remain relatively unchanged. Volume-related expenses will continue to correlate with business activity, while certain inflation affected expenses such as rent, insurance, and wages will increase compared to last year. Performance-based incentive compensation will only increase based on operating income improvements achieved as it will reflect actual performance relative to performance plans. Strategic growth-oriented expenses such as investments in sales center network expansion, tuck-in acquisitions, and ongoing technology development will continue as we gain share and work to improve our service offering.
With flat revenue for the full year, we believe operating margin of around 13% is attainable. Estimated interest expense in the range of $50 million to $53 million is unchanged from our previous guidance and we would expect it to be highest in Q2, following our early buy payments to vendors. No changes to our expected annual tax rate of 25.3% excluding ASU benefit. Fully diluted weighted average sales outstanding is expected to be approximately 38.75 million shares, excluding any effect of additional share buyback. Guidance for 2024 diluted EPS of $13.19 to $14.19 now includes $0.19 of ASU benefit up from $0.10 in our previously provided range. In summary, we are focused on continued discipline in managing our business through this time of economic uncertainty, while investing in areas of strategic long-term growth.
We are in a position of strength as we have accessed the high levels of capital to fund our growth plans. At the same time, we continue to reward our existing shareholders with increasing cash dividends and an ongoing share buyback program. Our capital allocation approach allows us to continue to deliver increasing returns, as we improve our operating results from a legacy of disciplined consistent execution. We are now ready to move into the Q&A portion of our call.
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