Good day, and welcome to the Eagle Materials first quarter fiscal 2023 earnings conference call. All participants will be in a listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star, then one on a touchtone phone. To withdraw your question, please press star, then two. Please note this event is being recorded. I will now turn the conference call over to Eagle's President and Chief Executive Officer, Michael Haack. Mr. Haack, please go ahead, sir.
Good morning. Welcome to Eagle Materials conference call for our first quarter for fiscal 2023. This is Michael Haack. Joining me today are Craig Kesler, our Chief Financial Officer, and Bob Stewart, Executive Vice President of Strategy, Corporate Development, and Communications. We are glad you could be with us today. There will be a slide presentation made in connection with this call. To access it, please go to eaglematerials.com and click on the link to the webcast. While you're accessing the slides, please note that the first slide covers our cautionary disclosure regarding forward-looking statements made during this call. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause results to differ from those discussed during the call. For further information, please refer to this disclosure, which is also included at the end of our press release.
First, I wanna start off by saying we had a very good quarter. Business conditions remain favorable for Eagle. I am pleased to report we enjoyed record adjusted net earnings per share up 25% on record revenues. We were able to capitalize on very favorable market conditions for our products in our U.S. operating geographies. We expanded gross margins by 30 basis points, bringing our gross margins to nearly 27% as we overcame inflationary cost headwinds to achieve this result. This illustrates once again that being a low-cost producer in a commodity industry has benefits in good times, not just in tough times. We realized 24% price increases in wallboard for the quarter, reflecting the strong prevailing market demand, and we realized 10% higher cement prices for our cement.
We are implementing a second round of price increases in cement starting this month as we remain in the virtually sold-out position. We have some headroom left in wallboard capacity, and our wallboard volumes were up 5% for the quarter. The question on many investors' minds now is what is ahead this construction cycle? Some aspects of the outlook I'm actually quite confident about, and others I am less confident about. The first thing I'm confident about is that Fed moves will eventually slow the economy. The question is, by how much and for how long? Much of our business strength is driven by infrastructure spend, which is less consumer dependent and more policy dependent. On the infrastructure side, the outlook is very good. We are seeing a willingness to invest in infrastructure for both the federal and the state level.
This investment is not only for renewing existing infrastructure, but adding additional infrastructure. In fact, as it relates to both need recognition and funding clarity, there is arguably more visibility than there has ever been before in this aspect of the outlook. For the housing side, which represents the single most critical end use for our products, there's more uncertainty to the outlook. The answer to how the housing side will play out this cycle will depend heavily on the consumer. So far, consumer spending has been remarkably resilient, bolstered in part by stronger household balance sheets and a sense of security about jobs and job prospects. My confidence about this year and the longer term is actually high because of our visibility on the drivers of demand for our products. The midterm is where I have more questions.
Short term, the rate of the outlay for federally aided highway funding and budget allocations for state funding have largely been set, and they will accelerate over the next two years. The momentum associated with a record pace of housing construction will see us through this year from a standpoint of building materials demand. Single-family units under construction is at the highest level since November 2006, and multifamily units under construction is at the highest level since 1974. Record home construction backlogs will support a floor for product demand this year. Regarding the long term, what gives me the most confidence about housing is demographics. The age 30 to 39 group is traditionally the most important home buying cohort as it corresponds to when families are most frequently becoming established and inclined to buy homes.
This age group has been increasing and is expected to increase further through 2028. Midterm is where it's the greatest uncertainty. Will the Fed overshoot, undershoot, or land the plane just right? What the Fed does is not under our control. Therefore, we will do as we always have, and that is focus on operating our assets safely, efficiently, and effectively. In short, we will focus on what is entirely in our control to add value to our shareholders. We are well-positioned and well-prepared for the midterm eventualities. Our track record through the cycles is arguably unrivaled in our industry. Margins, returns, EVA, safety, customer satisfaction, environmental stewardship, you name it. I'm confident we will meet any challenges that may be served up in the midterm with the same steadfastness in both strategy and execution that has led to the results we are sharing with you today.
We are well-positioned, well-prepared, and cycle experienced. We also continue to hold steadfast to our investment priorities and disciplines. Our first priority remains growth and improvement investments. We remain highly disciplined about our strategic focus and return criteria. We will not compromise either aspect in pursuit of growth for growth's sake. Having said that, we continue to find acquisitions that do meet our criteria. At this time, these are smaller and are directed at extending our network of cement terminals, expanding our aggregate operations, or improving our low-cost producer positions. One such acquisition that we were able to close in the quarter was a concrete and aggregate producer north of Denver. This acquisition gives us multiple decades of aggregates in a market where we participate in today.
Our free cash flows are strong, and when we do not find growth investments that meet our criteria, we have a strong track record of returning cash to shareholders, especially through share repurchases. This quarter was no exception. I'm pleased to say we invested $110 million to repurchase 884,000 shares this quarter. Another critical priority for us is advancing our environmental and social agenda. It is a company priority and a personal one. We continue making progress on the rollout of our limestone cement initiative, which will make our finite clinker production go further and reduce the carbon footprint of concrete in use on a per yard basis. Specifically, I'm pleased to report that over half the sales at one of our largest cement plants this quarter was our new Portland limestone cement. This is a major milestone for us.
Across our system, nearly 15% of our cement sales for the quarter were limestone cement, a major accomplishment, but only a start. I might add that these sales were at price equivalence with our traditional product. In summary and conclusion, I cannot help but feel optimistic about the prospects for the company and the economy when business is as good as it is today. We remain confident about the short term and the long term and recognize the midterm introduces a more than usual amount of uncertainty as the Fed rebalances employment and inflation goals. I assure you that we are well prepared and well-positioned to capture the opportunities that are presenting themselves today and to meet the challenges of any eventuality ahead. Now let me turn it over to Craig to discuss the financials for the quarter.
Thank you, Michael. As mentioned, first quarter revenue was a record $561 million, an increase of 18% from the prior year. Excluding the recently acquired business, revenue increased 16%. The increase reflects higher wallboard and cement sales prices, as well as increased wallboard sales volume. First quarter earnings per share was $2.75. That's a 22% increase from the prior year. The increase is driven by improved earnings and our reduced share count due to our buyback program. Fully diluted shares are down 10% from the prior year. Excluding non-routine items highlighted in the earnings release, first quarter adjusted EPS was up 25%. Turning now to segment performance. This next slide shows the results in our heavy material sector, which includes our cement and concrete and aggregate segments.
Revenue in the sector increased 10%, driven primarily by the increase in cement sales prices implemented earlier this year. These increases were partially offset by lower cement sales volume. Operating earnings were essentially flat as increased cement sales prices were partially offset by higher energy and maintenance costs during the quarter. Given the strong demand backdrop, we did implement a second round of cement price increases in early July. Within the concrete and aggregates segment, on a like-for-like basis, our concrete sales volume improved 2% and our aggregate sales volume improved 31%. Moving to the light materials sector on the next slide. Revenue in our light materials sector increased 30%, reflecting higher wallboard sales volume and prices.
Operating earnings in the sector increased 32% to $88 million, reflecting higher net sales prices, partially offset by higher input costs for recycled fiber and energy. While energy costs remain elevated, we recently increased our forward purchases for natural gas to 40% of company-wide needs at $4.78 per MMBtu. Looking now at our cash flow, which remains strong. In the first quarter, operating cash flow increased 13% to $125 million, reflecting improved earnings and working capital management. Capital spending increased to $15 million. As Michael mentioned, during the quarter, we completed the acquisition of an aggregates-led business in northern Colorado with a purchase price of $121 million. We also repurchased 884,000 shares of our common stock for $110 million and paid our quarterly dividend.
Between the share repurchases and dividends, we returned $119 million to shareholders this quarter. Finally, a look at our capital structure. At June 30, our net debt to cap ratio was 49%, and our net debt to EBITDA leverage ratio was 1.6 times. We ended the quarter with $68 million of cash on hand, bringing total committed liquidity at the end of the quarter to approximately $631 million. We have no meaningful near-term debt maturity, giving us substantial financial flexibility. Thank you for attending today's call. We'll now move to the question-and-answer session. Mike, I'll turn it back over to you.
Yes, sir. Thank you. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your touchtone phone. If you're using a speakerphone, please pick up your headset before pressing the keys. If any type of question has been addressed, and you'd like to withdraw your question, please press star then two. Again, it is star then one to ask a question. At this time, we'll just pause momentarily to assemble our roster. The first question we have will come from Trey Grooms of Stephens. Please go ahead.
Hey, good morning, everyone, and nice work in the quarter and, thank you all for the comments on your outlook there, especially. Understandably, you know, there's less visibility on the medium term around housing, as you mentioned. Michael, you touched on it briefly, but could you go into more detail about any changes that, you know, that you would make to, you know, on how you run the business, in a softer demand environment and, you know, controlling what you can control as you said there. Just, again, you touched on it, but a little more detail on that would be great.
Yeah. Trey, what we do is we've historically done with any cycle, as you know, we monitor our demand profile, which right now our demands are strong across both businesses, but we monitor those demand profiles, and we could shift with those demand profiles to make sure, you know, we continue to operate the operations effectively. You know, a lot of our businesses, especially on the wallboard side, are more people dependent than anything else, and we do not tend to overstaff during the heavy times versus the light times with it. So, you know, we run very lean. The other thing that we're doing that Craig mentioned briefly in his comments was, you know, looking out at our fuels and some hedging opportunities and everything else to control some of our heavier cost input areas.
What also should be remembered is we control our raw material input on the side. You know, we are not up for those swings if those prices do change. We monitor the whole supply chain, and we monitor how we operate those facilities, and we have mechanisms in place if there was a demand change. Right now, you know, we're seeing strong demand, as we said.
Right. Okay, thank you for that. That kind of leads into a follow-up, you know, on the wallboard business, you know, you mentioned the backlog there. Excuse me, the backlog at the home builders, the construction and the catch-up. You expect that to, you know, kinda hold the volume or the demand up for wallboard here, you know, through this year. Is that to say, you know, what we've seen, you know, recently kinda low to mids on the volume is kinda the expectation, you know, as we look through the balance of the calendar year, given that backlog?
You know, how I look at it, Trey, is, you know, the backlog is there on the home building side, and as long as the demand profiles on the house building and everything stay, that should support us through this year at kind of our run rate we're seeing today.
Perfect. Fair enough. Last one for me is, you know, on the energy side, and Craig, you touched on, you know, some things you're doing there. You know, the nat gas prices have been extremely violent. You know, obviously that's a headwind. Can you talk about, you know, what we've seen in nat gas prices combined with some of the locked in portion of your nat gas needs, also kinda taking into consideration some of the pricing actions you have in place, how we should be thinking about, you know, margins in the kinda near term, maybe even medium term, given this backdrop?
Yeah. Trey, just to clarify, right, natural gas is the predominant fuel in wallboard and paper, whereas on the cement side, it's generally a solid fuel consumption, coal, petcoke, things like that. On the wallboard and paper side with nat gas, as I mentioned, we've got about 40% of our needs hedged at under $4 or $5 for the remainder of the year. Importantly, that is sustained through the winter at that level. Where you could see some different changes in nat gas prices. On the cement side, our solid fuel is generally locked in for the remainder of the year. That's generally how we do these annual contracts in cement.
I will tell you as we look out into calendar 2023, or for us would be fiscal 2024, we do see continued elevation in fuel prices for the cement business. A little too early to quantify that, but it is something that we are monitoring. Take all of that against the environment that we're operating in, where we've been able to achieve good price increases across all these businesses. Certainly the demand environment is very supportive of that with very high utilization rates across the network. There's no doubt a portion of those are also associated with these inflation costs around energy. As we pointed out this quarter, we've been able to raise prices ahead of this inflation this year to date.
We've got additional price increases slated for this summer in both cement and wallboard. At this point, we've been able to manage and keep up with inflation.
Okay. Well, thanks for the detail on that, Craig, and I'll pass it along. Good luck. Thank you.
Next, we have Brent Thielman of D.A. Davidson & Co.
Hey, great. Thank you. Michael or Craig, the strength and resiliency of wallboard pricing, especially in a downbeat environment is pretty notable. I guess any future plans or announcements you can share? You know, I'd just be curious your thoughts, you know, how you think about the industry sort of maintaining these higher levels in terms of pricing and sort of a softer landing housing scenario.
Yeah. You know, it's a good question with it. You know, as I said in my opening comments, you know, with the backlog out there, you know, we see kind of a floor through the short term area with it. We were able to actually, we've announced a price increase on the wallboard side, we're working through with our customers right now. So, you know, the demand profile is still supportive. You know, we're not seeing, you know, we're still on a high demand cycle right now on our wallboard operations. Like I said, we see that with a floor established for the backlog there.
Yeah, Brent, what I would also add to that is a couple thoughts. One is certainly think about our markets. We're in some of the stronger markets across the U.S., generally in the southern half of the U.S., where demographic trends and construction activity is stronger. You know, there are, and we've talked about it a lot over the years, some of the raw material inputs that are diminishing in the eastern half of the U.S., specifically around synthetic gypsum continue to be a cost pressure for many, not for us. We're generally a natural gypsum-oriented business. You know, those are all things that you think about through a cycle, and how that plays out on the wallboard business.
With limited supply, you know, expected in the future, to come on, you know, you're gonna have higher utilizations throughout the cycle, which is something that is very different than what we've seen in the previous two cycles. It gives us, we think this business is much more sustainable, much more resilient than what we've seen in past cycles.
Maybe to add to that, Michael, Craig, I guess just that, you know, you think about the competitive landscape, the evolution that's happened there, you know, since the last time we went through a, you know, rising rate environment and housing down cycle. Does that have any thoughts on that and how that might, you know, affect your approach to pricing?
Yeah, look, we generally don't talk about competitors. I just would say if you think about the last two cycles in Wallboard, you're talking about the late 1990s, early 2000s, and then the mid-2000s. In both of those cases, we saw a significant amount of new supply being added to the Wallboard business with the increasing supply of synthetic gypsum. We sit in a very different spot today with synthetic gypsum diminishing in availability as coal-fired power plant production has gone down. We don't see any significant new supply coming onto the market, you know, over the next several years. That is a very different environment than what we've operated in prior cycles. That should have a different outcome.
Look, I think it's a little too early to make any decisions or confirmations around the demand profile for this cycle. You know, there's still a lot of moving parts here.
Yep, fair enough. Appreciate that. Just on cement, maybe a refresh of the magnitude of the price increases this month and whether that's across the entire footprint?
It's across nearly the entire footprint, not every market for us, but most markets, and it's, again, another double-digit price increase that was slated for early July.
Okay, great. Thank you, guys.
The next question we have will come from Anthony Pettinari at Citigroup.
Hi, this is Asher Sohnen in for Anthony Pettinari. Thanks for taking my questions. You know, you talked about PLC in your prepared remarks, but can you just update us sort of on the path to getting towards the full, you know, use out of PLC? Where are you on that? Maybe is the bottleneck still sort of states recognizing that that they can-
Yeah.
sort of allowing that to be used?
Yeah, I could give you a little color around that. You know, kind of when you look at PLC, there's multiple aspects to deploying PLC. You know, one of them is with, you know, states and DOTs and everything. We're really far along on that with, almost all of our businesses having approved PLC with state DOTs in their areas. The second part really is, you know, there is a change to the manufacturing process of where you got to introduce a limestone into a grinding circuit with it. So there's some capital outlay that we've been doing, and each plant will have kind of a different timeline to become 100%, PLC compliant.
You know, we're actually ahead of schedule for what we've been talking about before with, you know, 15% of our market, or our sales this quarter, being PLC. I do see that accelerating, you know, getting to the 100% PLC will be more dependent on supply chain delivery of products, but we'll make substantial progress to get there in the near term. In the midterm, we should have everybody converted over as those projects come online.
Great. Thanks. Separately, you guys talked about infrastructure spending as sort of largely set for the next couple of years, which is encouraging. Is that largely locked in in terms of dollars of spending or maybe projects in the pipeline? Because if it's the former, then if you see those sort of price inflation persisting at these strong levels, could some of that rising price maybe erode the volumes that would have been implied in those spending budgets?
Yeah, no, that's not exactly how we think about it. You know, there's lots of inputs into these construction jobs, you know, and this is a multiyear bill that is in addition to state and local spending on infrastructure projects. Based on the lettings that we're seeing from the markets that we're in, you know, we are expecting to see, you know, good momentum and good demand from that bill, you know, and playing out for several years.
Okay, thanks. That's really helpful. I'll turn it over.
The next question we have will come from Jerry Revich of Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Yes. Hi, good morning, everyone.
Good morning.
I'm wondering if you'd talk about your expectations of price realization in cement relative to the double-digit numbers that you as spoke about, Craig. You know, I think in the past, you folks have essentially gotten, you know, 70% of what you've asked for, and I'm wondering to what extent could that be moving higher in this environment, given the inflationary pressures that everybody's facing and, you know, a 15% price increase that was just reported by one of your competitors this morning.
Yeah, yeah. You know, when we look at it, you know, it's too early to tell right now with it. We're working through with our customers right now. But you know, how I'll answer that question more is, you know, if you look at the demand profile for our products, we're in a, you know, near sold-out position, really at a sold-out position with a lot of our plants. So the demand profile is very supportive of this price increase. So I won't give you a specific number on that, but, you know, we have expectations with the demand profile of where we'll land.
Okay. Can we talk about, in wallboard, you know, when we look at the last available financials for your biggest competitor, you know, you folks had enjoyed about a 20-point margin gap, 5 years ago because of the co-located strategy. Given the transportation cost moves over the past 5 years, that gap looks to be about 25% today. I'm wondering, what does your benchmarking analysis show, relative to their cost structure? Because, you know, obviously when people look at the margins that you folks are putting up in wallboard, there's a question of what the next trough might look like. Any comments you can make on the cost structure advantages you see now would be helpful.
Yeah, Jerry, you know, it's all aspects of the operations where we see an advantage, and it starts with pulling the rock out of the ground, right? We largely own or control our primary raw material, gypsum in this case, you know, close to our facilities, with you know, 40, 50 years of supply of those raw materials. You know, it starts there. Energy consumption, we talk about the hedging that we've done, but in reality, the best hedge is just not to use the natural gas. We've taken energy consumption out of the business over the last five years, the last 10 years, so that we're more efficient on energy consumption. The paper mill, we've talked about that a lot.
That continues to be a strategic advantage for us, providing a lower cost paper, but a better paper, for our wallboard plant. You know, we think as you think through the entire operating system, you know, we've continued to improve our low-cost operations. You know, again, try not to compare ourselves directly to competitors. You know, we know what we've done to our business to make it more resilient, more sustainable through a cycle. You know, the Georgetown plant, we didn't operate in prior cycles out in the Southeast. That plant is our lowest cost plant, and that's putting into a network that was already low cost. You know, again, we think we've actually. Then you just think about some of the other pressures.
We've talked about synthetic gypsum quite a bit and our exposure to that is relatively limited. You just think about the cost curve and where we sit on it. We think we've actually improved our position.
Craig, is it possible to quantify that based on a qualitative discussion? It sounds like it's higher than that 5-point gap that the pure transportation element would suggest. Is that fair?
Yeah. Look, not willing to quantify it for this purpose, but you know, we know where we sit on the curve and we've continued to expand our competitive position.
Okay. Super. Lastly, in the press release, you folks spoke about a project delay. Can you just give us a bit more context on where that is and a bit more color on the drivers?
Yeah, just in the central part of the U.S., you know, I think you're hearing it from a number of people this cycle where there were some rain and weather events in the central part of the U.S. For us, that's Missouri, Kansas, Illinois, that area. You know, just pushes projects out, and we see that from time to time.
Yep. Appreciate the discussion. Thanks.
Thanks, Jerry.
The next question we have will come from Philip Ng of Jefferies.
Hey, good morning. This is actually, Colin on for Philip Ng. Thanks for taking my questions. Just starting cement, with the IIJA funding coming through next year and a potential slowdown in housing, I guess, how are you looking out to maybe calendar year 2023, and cement volumes holding up in that type of backdrop?
Yeah. I think we would tell you we expect to continue to see very good demand, strong demand for cement and continued very high utilization rates across our network, given all of those things that you just commented on. Look, you know, I'll add to that the private non-res sector, which has continued to see improving numbers across the board.
Okay. Just following up on the non-res comment you just made there, I guess, is there any particular sectors that are seeing strength versus others that are seeing weakness, that you would call out?
Yeah. Look, I think if you look across the ABI, you look across the Dodge Index, those numbers have continued to improve and are operating above, you know, above expansion periods. Look, data warehouses, you know, those type of activities are very strong. But even their strength across some of the other sectors that had been weak during the COVID period.
Great. My last question is just on the August wallboard price increase. Just given the move in the natural gas prices, do you need the August wallboard increase to keep margins in check, or would that provide some opportunity for margin expansion through the rest of the fiscal year?
Yeah, look, you know, the recent move in natural gas has certainly continued to put some upward pressure on our cost structure. You know, OCC is still at relatively high levels. You know, we're going into it with the expectation that we should achieve a decent amount of it, and we'll see where it all lands.
Great. Thank you for taking my questions.
Next, we have Paul Roger of BNP.
Hi, guys. Thanks for taking my question. This is actually George Speak on behalf of Paul. I'll just ask a quick question on demand. So you've touched on the kind of macro headwinds and potential slowdown on the residential side. I appreciate, you know, long backlogs mean that you're not necessarily sort of experiencing all of that just yet. But are you seeing any early signs of a slowdown, maybe some sort of cancellations in projects or postponements or any just sort of incrementally more negative conversations with customers?
No. You know, our how I'll answer that is I am not gonna speculate on some of the future stuff with it. As I said in my comments, you know, through this short-term area with it, you know, the demand profile looks strong. You know, as you stated, we got some inflationary pressures, and we're putting out our price increase with it. You know, we expect to realize that because the demand profile, you know, the midterm is really still the midterm. In my comments, I said that's one that the consumer is gonna define the midterm more than anything. We feel comfortable in the short term and the long-term outlook, and there's a little murkiness in the midterm, and we'll handle that as it comes.
Okay. Sort of similar theme, but as it relates to M&A. Does the uncertainty in the midterm affect your M&A pipeline, or are there deals that you're exploring at the moment? Maybe just a bit of color on what that pipeline looks like.
Yeah. You know, we're always active in the M&A market. We look at a lot of opportunities with it. We have strict, you know, objectives with that and criteria on when we do an M&A. We're not gonna grow for growth's sake. We're gonna look at deals that make sense for us that, you know, extend our reach, our markets, and grow our business on the heavy side of the business. If one of those was to come available today, we'd be interested in those. It's just, you know, it's just we're active in that market, and we'll remain active in that market as long as it meets our strategic criteria.
Okay. Thanks for that. Appreciate your time.
All right. Well, sir, no further questions at this time. We will go ahead and conclude our question and answer session. I would now like to turn the conference call back over to Mr. Michael Haack for any closing remarks. Sir?
Thank you for joining us today for the call, and we look forward to talking to you at the end of next quarter in November.
All right. We thank you, sir, and to the rest of the management team for your time also today. The conference call is now concluded. At this time, you may disconnect your lines. Thank you. Take care, and have a wonderful and blessed day.