Greetings, and welcome to Century Communities first quarter 2022 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question- and- answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to your host, Scott Dixon. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Good afternoon. Thank you for joining us today for Century Communities earnings conference call for the first quarter 2022. Before the call begins, I would like to remind everyone that certain statements made during this call are not based on historical information and may constitute forward-looking statements.
These statements are based on management's current expectations and beliefs and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described or implied in the forward-looking statements. Certain of these risks and uncertainties can be found under the heading Risk Factors in the company's most recently filed 2021 annual report on Form 10-K, as supplemented by our other SEC filings. Our SEC filings are available at www.sec.gov and on our website at www.centurycommunities.com. The company undertakes no duty to update any forward-looking statements that are made during this call.
Additionally, certain non-GAAP financial measures will be discussed on this conference call. The company's presentation of this information is not intended to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for the financial information presented in accordance with GAAP. Management will be available after the call should you have any questions that did not get answered. Hosting the call today are Dale Francescon, Chairman and Co-Chief Executive Officer, Rob Francescon, President and Co-Chief Executive Officer, and David Messenger, Chief Financial Officer. Following today's prepared remarks, we will open the line for questions. With that, I will turn the call over to Dale.
Thank you, Scott, and good afternoon, everyone. We're extremely pleased with our results this quarter, which included the achievement of numerous company records and successes as we continued to experience strong consumer demand throughout the quarter for our affordable new homes across our entire 17-state, 45-plus market footprint. Despite the continued headwinds from municipal and utility delays, supply chain disruptions, and labor shortages, we delivered 2,348 homes for $1 billion in revenues, with a gross margin of 28.3% and an adjusted gross margin of 29.5%, both all-time company records. These home deliveries produced record first quarter pre-tax income of $189 million and a pre-tax income margin of 18.6%, a 560 basis point increase from the prior year quarter and our eighth sequential quarter of improvement.
Net income in the first quarter increased 40% to $142.5 million, or $4.20 in earnings per diluted share, both first-quarter records. During the quarter, we executed 2,944 net new contracts, with the number of sales increasing each month as the quarter progressed, even as the pace of interest rate increases accelerated. Our backlog at quarter end consisted of 5,247 sold homes valued at $2.2 billion, increases of 28% and 37% respectively, both company records. Our spec-based operating strategy enabled us to produce another quarter of strong results with increased gross and pre-tax income margins, even as we dealt with higher material and labor costs.
Despite these challenges, we increased EBITDA by 34% to our first quarter record, $204 million. We also increased our investment in homes under construction, land under development, and our quarterly dividend while repurchasing more than 1 million shares of our common stock, reducing our outstanding share count to the lowest levels since the third quarter of 2019.
We are continuing to see delays in land development and home starts due to the various factors facing the industry. All homes that we offer for sale are generally being sold before the home gets completed, as the potential buyer pool still exceeds the supply of available homes. As a spec builder, we're accustomed to having completed homes for immediate sale and move-in. At quarter end, we only had 17 completed homes across our 17 states that could be sold for an immediate move-in.
The elevated interest rate environment has not eliminated the demand drivers propelling the housing market over the last several years, including the ongoing shortage of both new and resale homes available for purchase. Millions of millennials, the largest generational group in the country, reaching the prime age for new household formation and the increased desire for homeownership brought about by the pandemic.
We believe the most significant impact of higher interest rates will not be on our ability to sell homes, but on our ability to raise prices as much or as frequently as we have done in the recent past. As the housing market continues to normalize from the unsustainable pricing power that has existed for the last year or so, we expect to be back to the typical home building scenario of raising prices in some subdivisions and offering certain incentives in others.
We have a seasoned management team and strong operational fundamentals and are confident in our abilities to make this transition. Our record-setting first quarter results would not have been possible without the perseverance, ingenuity, and dedication of our talented teams across the country. They continue to solve problems daily with the goal of providing our customers a home for every dream, and we want to thank them for their contributions. I'll now turn the call over to Rob to discuss our business in more detail.
Thank you, Dale, and good afternoon, everyone. Our spec-based land light operating model focused on delivering affordably priced homes continued to produce strong results, allowing us to strategically invest in land and homes under construction, grow our business, and increase stockholder value. Throughout the first quarter, we continued to raise prices across all of Century's markets. Even with this price appreciation, 80% of our home deliveries were priced below FHA limits, demonstrating our strong positioning within the affordable new home category. Our home buyer continues to have a healthy financial profile with average FICO scores of approximately 740 and 710, with a DTI of 39% based on loans originated in the first quarter, respectively, for our Century Communities and Century Complete home buyers.
These scores and ratios are consistent with our buyer profiles for the past two years and continues to reinforce the financial stability of our buyer pool. Our cancellation rate has remained low at approximately 12%, and we have not experienced a rise in contract terminations as a result of increased interest rates. As we began doing last year, our mortgage company is qualifying buyers at a rate that is 50 basis points higher than the current interest rate. On an ongoing basis, we also evaluate and stress test all homes in our backlog without a rate lock at interest rates up to 6%. During the quarter, we strategically invested in our land pipeline to expand our local market share. These investments have grown our total land supply to over 85,000 lots with approximately 60% controlled, consistent with prior quarters.
One market we significantly increased our holdings was Florida. In 2021, we announced our entrance into Florida with the Century Communities brand, starting with Jacksonville at the beginning of the year and Tampa and Orlando near year-end. Our Century Complete brand has operated throughout Florida for numerous years. However, this state represented a major market where the Century Communities brand wasn't previously present. The past couple of quarters, with activity ramping up in Q1, have seen our leadership team hiring personnel, contracting land, and beginning home construction. We will be offering our first homes for sale under the Century Communities brand in the second quarter, with deliveries expected in the fourth quarter. The home building industry continues to be challenged by municipal and utility delays, supply chain issues, and trade shortages.
We do not see a catalyst or comprehensive solution in 2022 to these issues, but our affordably priced spec-based model with no or limited options, national footprint, and purchasing capabilities have helped us mitigate some of the impact. Our local and national teams have also become more adept in identifying potential roadblocks and implementing solutions earlier with the experience gained over the last two years. The upward pressure in material, labor, and fuel costs hasn't abated with the exception of lumber, which lower costs are beginning to positively impact our new home starts. 97% of our first quarter home deliveries were spec builds, enabling us to better forecast construction costs before establishing a home's price.
We continue to benefit from the strategic operational initiatives that have been implemented over the last several years and believe our business model is well suited to address the headwinds related to home construction and rising interest rates. For example, in the first quarter, we achieved adjusted gross margins of 29.5%, our seventh sequential quarter of improvement, a pre-tax income margin of 18.6%, our eighth sequential quarter of improvement, and a return on equity of 33.7%, our twelfth sequential quarter of improvement, all company records. We believe we are well positioned to continue generating strong financial and operational results, and we're excited for what the future holds for our company and our stockholders. I'll now turn the call over to Dave to discuss our financial results in more detail.
Thank you, Rob. During the first quarter of 2022, net income increased 40% to a first quarter record $142.5 million or $4.20 per diluted share, compared to $101.7 million or $3 per diluted share in the prior year quarter. Pre-tax income was $188.8 million, an increase of 44% and a first quarter record. Home sales revenues for the first quarter grew to $988.4 million compared to $959.3 million in the prior year quarter. This improvement in revenues was propelled by 2,348 homes being delivered with a 23% increase in average sales price to $421,000.
In the first quarter, net new contracts across our regions were 2,944. We improved our quarter end backlog 28% to 5,247 homes valued at $2.2 billion, a 37% increase. In the first quarter, adjusted home building gross margin percentage was 29.5% compared to 23.1% in the prior year quarter. Home building gross margin percentage improved to 28.3% compared to 21.1% for the same period last year. This is the seventh quarter of sequential gross margin improvements.
SG&A, as a percent of home sales revenue, was 10.3% in the first quarter compared to 9.6% in the prior year, the result of planning new community openings, entrance into new markets, and overall wage increases that are occurring across the industry. Our pre-tax income margin was 18.6%, the highest in our history and the eighth sequential quarter of improvement. During the first quarter, financial services generated $26.3 million in revenues compared to $33.6 million in the prior year quarter. The business captured 77% of the closings and contributed $11.2 million in pre-tax income compared to $15.3 million in the prior year quarter.
The decrease in pre-tax income compared to the prior year period was due to fewer loan originations compared to the prior year and selling loans into the secondary markets at normalized margins this year compared to 2021. We ended the quarter with a strong financial position, including $1.8 billion in stockholders' equity, a 33% year-over-year increase, $1.1 billion in total liquidity, $254 million in cash, and no borrowings outstanding on our $800 million unsecured revolving credit facility that does not mature until April 2026. During the quarter, we invested $62.4 million in repurchasing 1,013,387 shares of our common stock, leaving approximately 2.8 million shares available for repurchase under our current authorization.
We also increased our quarterly cash dividend by 33% to $0.20 per share. Our home building debt- to- capital ratio was 35.6% at quarter end compared to 39.5% in the prior year. Our net home building debt- to- net capital ratio increased slightly from year-end to 29.3%, primarily due to increased investments in inventory. In the fourth quarter, our tax rate was 24.5% compared to 22.4% last year due to the federal energy tax credits not having been renewed for 2022. We're extremely pleased with our strong performance in the first quarter of 2022, which has resulted in us achieving an ROE of 33.7%, a new record for the company and our 12th sequential quarter of improvement.
Considering our first quarter results, backlog, homes under construction, and our current development pipeline schedules, we are reaffirming our 2022 guidance of deliveries in the range of 11,500-12,500 homes, home sales revenues to be in the range of $4.3 billion-$4.9 billion, and ending selling community count to be in the range of 240-250 selling communities, with the clear majority of our new community openings occurring in the third and fourth quarters. With that, I'll open the line for questions. Operator?
Thank you. At this time, we will be conducting a question -and- answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in a question queue. You may press star two if you would like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. One moment, please, while we poll for questions. The first question comes from the line of Deepa Raghavan with Wells Fargo. Please go ahead.
Thanks very much for taking my call. Good evening. Just, Dave, can you talk through some of the pricing strength in your orders? You didn't provide, I mean, I know you don't provide pro forma numbers there, but any color on the momentum? You know, are you witnessing any pushback maybe in your tertiary markets or even in the Century Complete brand? And then also curious if you're taking any defensive measures already. I mean, you mentioned qualifying buyers at 50 basis points higher in preparation for the higher rate environment, et cetera. Some of your peers mentioned doing longer-term rate locks as well. Just curious, you know, how's pricing trending? Any pushback? Are you taking any defensive measures at this time?
Sure. Hi, Deepa. This is Dale. No, we've really seen no pushback on pricing. As we said in our prepared remarks, each month during the quarter, the sales actually increased. Throughout the quarter, we continued to raise pricing, and we have not seen any pushback from that. Now, at some point, that's gonna stop. Also, as we said in the prepared remarks, what we really believe is that as the interest rates continue to increase, that's gonna impact our ability to raise prices. At some point, as the year progresses, we expect to see incentives come back into the market. At this point, everything remains, you know, very positive. With regard to your question on rate locks, we're doing the same thing as well.
It's really a combination in terms of when the house is gonna complete. Most of the homes, when we look at what we have under construction other than homes that we have in backlog, are really longer-term completions. The number of specs that we have completing in the second quarter are somewhat limited because they've already been sold.
Well, thanks for the color there. Just switching gears to closing volumes in the quarter. You know, versus consensus, it's a miss, but wanted to see how you track versus your expectations internally. Also trying to get a perspective on that second half weighted closings and community count guide, in light of supply chain constraints. Doesn't look like you're assuming supply chain gets better. How do you catch up, you know, if there's been a miss in Q1 and the supply chain is not getting any easier?
Hey, Deepa, this is Dave. I would say that, you know, in terms of our deliveries for the first quarter, they were on track with what we were expecting internally. We look at this and based on what we were seeing from a construction scheduling standpoint, and what we were seeing in the field, we're pleased with what we were able to deliver in the first quarter. As I look at the second quarter and we're trying to figure out, you know, what's our cadence gonna be and then the third and fourth quarter. Second quarter, you know, probably gonna experience a backlog conversion that's similar to what we had in the first quarter and last year.
You know, somewhere between that 50%-60% backlog conversion is where I'm gonna be coming in in the second quarter. Then Q3 and Q4, you know, I've got, you know, 5,000+ homes in backlog today. A lot of those are gonna be closing here in Q3 and Q4. We've got new communities opening up later in the year. We have a variety of sales going on. While it may seem like it's back-end loaded, it's fairly consistent with what our Q4 call was saying that, you know, the first half of the year on new communities was gonna be a little bit static. Given that we had strong sales in the first quarter, we closed out of a bunch of communities that we hadn't planned on closing out of at that early.
We'll deliver those homes later, and then the homes that the new communities that we're looking to open will continue to be open later on during the year.
Got it. If I can squeeze one more in. Can you talk to your SG&A outlooks as well for the full year? I mean, Q1 SG&A, again, slightly higher than we would have expected. Just can you comment, you know, where we should expect it to land, for the full year 2022? You know, if it's higher, what are some of the moving parts that's driving that SG&A higher? Thanks very much.
No problem. Yeah, regarding SG&A, I think that, you know, if you're looking at it on a percentage basis, yes, it's higher compared to other quarters that we've had. On a dollar basis, you know, our fixed costs in Q1 were flat with Q4, and so from a volume perspective, we feel good about where SG&A is. Given what our revenue and volume outlook is for the back half of this year, for the next three quarters, we would still expect that our full year SG&A as a percent of revenues comes in at or better than what our 2021 was, which was 9.7%. I think that, you know, you'll see some steady improvement as the year goes and the volumes return.
Thanks very much. Great quarter. I'll pass it on.
Thank you.
Thanks, Deepa.
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Alex Rygiel with B. Riley. Please go ahead.
Thanks. First question has two parts. Gross margins were fantastic and, you know, gross margins over the past few years have increased sequentially from the first quarter print. Dale, you mentioned in your canned remarks that you expect to be back to more normalcy, where some communities have pricing power and others require some use of incentives. How should we think about that comment as it relates to margin implications over the next year or so?
Well, when we look at our backlog, our backlog is consistent with what we've experienced. As we go forward, it really is market conditions and just like when we had the opportunity to raise prices, we raised them frequently and aggressively, and we're able to exceed what our input cost increases were. To the extent we can continue to do that, we're planning on doing it. When and if the market gets to a point where we can't do it and we have to add incentives, then we'll do that. Looking forward, it's a little hard to have a crystal ball. It's really gonna be what the market will provide is what we're going to make sure that our business lives with.
It's helpful. The next question, can you just address sort of the view that some might have that higher rates possibly impact the first time buyer category the most, and how that could reflect on your business?
You know, we don't really see it that way, and we haven't seen a difference, you know, both between our brands and even within the Century Communities brand itself. I mean, there are some quite a spread in terms of ASP between the various subdivisions. We really haven't seen a difference in how the lower priced communities have performed versus the higher priced communities in our portfolio. You know, we always look at it that there's a certain amount of elasticity involved. As rates go up and someone can't afford as much house, well, they also have the opportunity to buy a less expensive house, and that's really where we offer most of our products. That's not something that when we look at it, we think that's a big risk to our business.
That's helpful. Thank you very much.
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Alan Ratner with Zelman & Associates. Please go ahead.
Hey, you guys. Good afternoon. Congrats on the strong results, and thanks for all the color. First question, apologies if I missed it, but curious, you know, just thinking about April here and recognizing you just kind of commented that you haven't seen any discernible differences across your price points. What are you seeing in terms of traffic, wait lists, things like that? Any kind of forward-looking indicators that you could point to that would suggest things, you know, on the margin might be softening just a bit? I think we've heard a little bit of chatter about that from others, but I'm curious if you're seeing that in your footprint, and if so, you know, any particular markets or price points stand out?
Yeah, Alan, this is Dale. We have seen that. There's been a little less traffic, but the amount of traffic that we are getting and the amount of demand that we're seeing so far exceeds the supply of homes that we have available. I wouldn't say there's any particular markets or price points that's different in terms of what we're seeing in terms of interest level. You know, I think it's something that historically we always see when you have interest rates go up. You really get two actions from buyers. It pulls some buyers off the fence because they wanna go ahead and buy.
Then the other thing it does is it keeps some people on the fence as they have to digest it and be, you know, get to a point where they say, okay, they're comfortable with it. Really in a lot of cases, our a buyer is really making a choice to purchase much of our product on, are they gonna continue to rent or are they gonna purchase a home? Rental rates certainly aren't softening. When you look at that trade-off of continuing rent or being able to lock in on a longer term basis, which our housing costs are, it's still very attractive, even with these increased rates to buy a home. You know, I just had the question in terms of, are we concerned about the higher rates impacting our lower priced product?
It really, in certain ways, it goes the other direction as well because if you have a lot of move-up homes, that takes someone that is choosing to sell their home, many times they have a low interest rate, and having to step up and buy another one. We really look at it that we are positioned in the right buyer price point for what's going on right now.
Great. Now, I appreciate the thoughts there. You brought up rentals, and I'm curious. I forget kind of where you've been the last few quarters, but in terms of interest from, you know, single-family rental and sales there, what's that running at right now? Given the move in rates, has there been any contemplation as far as either increasing that exposure, you know, anything going on there that's been an incremental change?
No, we haven't seen any reduction of demand from the for-rent operators. It's really a small part of our business. We don't court that. We do a certain amount of it, but it's really a very small part of our business.
Okay. I appreciate it, guys. Thanks a lot.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Jay McCanless with Wedbush. Please go ahead.
Hey, good afternoon, guys. Thanks for taking my questions. First question I had, and it's actually kind of a two-parter. If I think about the Century Complete brand versus the Century Communities brand, are you having more issues supply chain and freight lane-wise, getting those Century Complete homes built, just because these homes are out typically further outside the normal metro than, say, your Legacy brand? And then also, the second part of this question is, are you seeing the same amount of home price appreciation in these smaller metros like you're seeing in the more normal markets where the public builders operate?
Jay, the first part of your question is, yeah, there are more supply chain challenges on the Century Complete side, just given the fact that in most cases, they're smaller subdivisions as well as they may be a little further outside the metro area. The trade-off is that the houses are simpler to build. They're smaller. So as a result, when you look at it, even though there are more supply chain challenges, they're faster homes to build just because of the size and complexity of the home. In terms of our ability to push price, no, we've not seen any difference at all.
Wanted to ask, you know, understanding that you're maintaining the revenue and the unit closing guidance, it seems with, you know, $421,000 ASP this quarter that as some newer product comes on in the back half of the year, it looks like ASP is gonna have to tick down pretty meaningfully from this $421,000 now. Maybe could y'all talk about whether it's that new Florida product you talked about on the Complete side or increased openings of the Century Complete brand. Just maybe walk us through how the ASP you think is gonna progress this year.
Yeah. Hey, Jay, it's Dave. Yeah, it's definitely a mixed issue. As we look at the ASP, you know, if you look at our backlog, you've got, you know, 45%-46% of our backlog is sitting in Century Complete with an ASP at $252,000. So as that comes through our closings in more of an outsized pace, that will be dropping our delivered ASP. Yes, as we're bringing on new communities, they'll be at a variety of price points, whether it's in the Florida markets, the Louisville markets, the Century Complete markets or other Century Communities openings. We are always trying to bring them in at, you know, kind of that affordable entry-level priced component.
The biggest shift is really a mixed component that you can see in our backlog, along with 45% plus sitting at $252,000.
Okay. Then I guess, what are the implications maybe for the second quarter and third quarter gross margin? Because I think Dale or Rob said earlier that what you have in backlog now is probably pretty similar gross margin-wise. As you open a lot of that new product in the back half of the year, what impact might that have on gross margin?
Yeah, I think it's a little bit difficult, as Dale was saying, to have visibility into what's gonna occur in the back half of the year. As I look at backlog, you know, backlog has been experiencing margins that have been similar to what we've been posting the past several quarters. Then we'll look and see if there's any additional incentives or costs that need to be kicked in to get homes closed in the appropriate quarter, and as we want them scheduled to be closed.
Then we'll be looking at margins and what the market is dictating and, you know, as we get into that third and fourth quarter and seeing where rates are, where the buyers are, what is the market doing, and how we compete accordingly in order to sell and close the homes. As we look at it's a little bit difficult to give you any kind of color into that third quarter, but that's kind of where we see the market today.
Okay. Then last one, and I'll turn it over. I know you guys said you were underwriting to 50 basis points higher on new mortgage apps, but have you looked at the backlog? If we get to 6% or a 7% mortgage rate, what percentage of the current backlog might not be able to close?
Yeah, this is Dave. We have been stress testing. You know, as Dale mentioned, we've got a fairly significant amount of our backlog for the second quarter here is already rate locked. For all loans, all potential loans that are not rate locked, we are stress testing up to 6% and working with the buyers to see if they need to be doing anything additional in order to make sure they're gonna close the home. Then we're continually doing a variety of other stress tests just to make sure that, you know, if ratios got out of whack, whatever else may be going on with the buyer, we're making sure that those homes are closing, and we've got a plan for them.
Okay, great. Appreciate you taking my questions.
You're welcome.
Thank you.
Thanks, Jay.
Thank you. Again, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. Next question comes from the line of Alex Barrón with Housing Research Center. Please go ahead.
Thanks, gentlemen, and great job on the quarter. I wanted to see if you could address the topic of share buybacks. It seems like you guys stepped up here this quarter, something that I think you hadn't done to the same degree before. I'm just curious about your thoughts going forward, given where the stock is trading. That's my first question.
Yeah. Hey, Alex, it's Dave. I would say that in terms we've been receiving a lot of questions about our capital deployment. Obviously, during the quarter, first, we increased our dividend 33% up to $0.20 a share. Secondly, we were active in the market, and we bought back just over 1 million shares at north of $62 million. If the market continues to discount the stock, we view it as a very attractive option, and we'll evaluate it going forward.
Yeah, 'cause right now, I mean, it seems like you're gonna be trading below book value, which would be pretty accretive. My second question has to do with build times. You know, what have you guys experienced in terms of build times this quarter? And along with that, at what point in the process are you guys kind of, you know, selling the majority of your homes? And at what point are the buyers able to lock in the rates? Are you assisting them with that, or is that something that they're doing?
In terms of cycle times, Alex, from the fourth quarter to the first quarter, they've been up as much as 10 days on our houses, and it has not gotten better. There are some green shoots right now where it appears that some things are getting a little better, but again, we're not forecasting that for the balance of this year for right now. As it relates to when we put a home up for sale, we're gonna make sure we have our costs locked in. That's the luxury of our spec-based model, and not put them on the market too soon so that we know for sure what our margins are and where we're at.
What's really important is not just the margins, but that we can deliver a home on the timeframe that our buyer's looking for it, so that we have that consistency as well. With that, we will assist them in rate locks, and it's on a case-by-case basis of course, but that's something we will do.
Okay. Now if I could ask one last one. Just curious, you know, how much, I guess confidence or visibility you guys have into how deep the buyer pool is. In other words, do you have wait lists or what's the way that you assess, you know, the supply versus demand to be able to assess whether you should increase prices and so forth?
You know, it's really, Alex, a matter of what we have for sale and what our sales pace is. You know, we're continuing to be able to sell our homes before they're complete. If we start seeing that changes in the market, then, you know, we'll adjust how we market, sell and price our homes. We've not reached that point yet.
Okay, great. Well, best of luck for the rest of the year. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thanks, Alex.
Thanks.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we have reached the end of question and answer session, and I would like to turn the call back to Dale Francescon for closing remarks.
Thank you, operator. I'd like to take this opportunity to once again thank all of our team members for their incredible work and continued dedication to our valued home buyers. I'd also like to thank our investors for their time today. We appreciate your continued support and investment and look forward to speaking with you again next quarter.
Thank you. This concludes today's conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.