Freightcar America, Inc.

Welcome to Freight Car America's third quarter 2024 earnings conference call. At this time, all participant lines are in a listen-only mode. For those of you participating on the conference call, there will be an opportunity for your questions at the end of today's prepared comments. Please note this conference is being recorded. An audio replay of the conference call will be available on the company's website within a few hours after this call. I would now like to turn the call over to Chris O'Day with Riveron Investor Relations.

Thank you and welcome. Joining me today are Nick Randall, President and Chief Executive Officer, Mike Reardon, Chief Financial Officer, and Matt Tong, Chief Commercial Officer. I'd like to remind everyone that statements made during this conference call related to the company's expected future performance, future business prospects, or future events or plans may include forward-looking statements as defined under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Participants are directed to FreightCar America's Form 10-K for a description of certain business risks, some of which may be outside of the control of the company and may cause actual results to materially differ from those expressed in the forward-looking statements. We expressly disclaim any duty to provide updates to our forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. During today's call, there will also be a discussion of some items that do not conform to U.S. generally accepted accounting principles or GAAP. Reconciliations of these non-GAAP measures to their most directly comparable GAAP measures are included in the earnings release issued this morning. Our earnings release for the third quarter 2024 is posted on the company's website at FreightCarAmerica.com, along with our 8K, which was filed pre-market this morning. And with that, I will now turn it over to Nick for a few opening remarks.

Thank you, Chris. Good morning, everyone, and thank you all for joining us today. This quarter marked another strong step in building on momentum from our record-setting start to the year. I'm pleased to report we remain on track to achieve our annual goals. We continue to execute our strategy of driving efficiencies at our state-of-the-art facility, enabling us to meet unique needs of our customers by producing premium rail cars, conversions, and rebodies, along with providing exceptional parts and services. In terms of financial performance, we grew top line sales significantly, increasing 83% over the prior year period and delivered another quarterly consistently solid gross margins of 14.3% and a second consecutive quarter of robust operating cash flow. This quarter highlights our differentiated product offerings and ability to deliver on our commitments with operational excellence. We managed multiple changeovers throughout the quarter, marked by robust shipments to the customers. During the quarter, we were pleased with our performance as we delivered 961 rail cars, just shy of last quarter's record output at our operating facility. We stand out in the industry due to our unique manufacturing capabilities and our operational flexibility, enabling us to meet diverse customer needs. By delivering differentiated products, we secure new business and improve our earnings quality. Our commercialization strategy is also distinct, with nearly all market routes supported by independent financing options. This focused approach allows us to stay nimble, efficiently handle smaller orders, and take on specialized projects as well as larger orders. Unlike competitors that both manufacture and lease, Our exclusive manufacturing role enhances our appeal, as we can partner more freely with a wide range of leasing providers. As proof of our flexibility to meet our customers' needs, we can partner with key shippers, positioning ourselves to consistently win high-quality work. For our large, covered hopper, we have refined design enhancement, including lightweight structure and high cubic capacity that provide additional optimization for our customers. This will be the first time we've produced this design of covered hoppers at our operating facility, which has been purposefully designed to help maximize payloads and transport efficiency. This underscores the value of our tailored solutions that address specific customer requirements. In terms of market dynamics, while the third quarter was slower regarding industry activity, we have continued to grow our market presence by capturing a historically strong proportion of orders and inquiries. On a trailing 12-month basis through September, we have gained 3% of share sequentially, despite orders across the overall industry being down roughly 20%. This steady flow of momentum and outperformance has been a hallmark of our commercial discipline this year as we continue to secure high-quality orders across differentiated portfolio. Demand for rail cars remains stable, largely tracking replacement cycles. And we expect this industry momentum to support our business model further as our pipeline grows. As we look to close out the year, we are confident in our market position. We're reaffirming our full-year revenue and rail car delivery expectations and raising the midpoint by narrowing our forecasted adjusted EBITDA range between $37 million and $39 million, representing a year-over-year increase of 89% at the midpoint. Looking ahead, we continue to see strong demand across various product lines that will have a positive impact as we enter 2025 and look forward to executing on our long-term growth prospects. Our focus remains clear, enhancing our product portfolio, capturing market share, and leveraging our proven manufacturing platform to drive sustained growth and cash generation. In my eyes, delivering strong results year to date is a significant achievement, and we're excited to carry this momentum into the fourth quarter, continuing to build a business that thrives on consistently meeting demand through our operational versatility. With that, I will next turn the call over to Matt to discuss the market, and then to Mike for more detail on our financial results.

Thank you, Nick, and good morning, everyone. We are pleased with our progress and are well positioned heading into the end of the year. For the third quarter of 2024, we closed orders for 739 rail cars valued at approximately $94.1 million. Excluding tank cars and auto racks, we captured 22% of industry orders on a trailing 12-month basis, led by continuing strong performance across open-top hoppers and improvements in flat cars, gondolas, and large cube-covered hoppers. Our improving market share is a testament to our team executing a commercial strategy that delivers value at every stage of the process. Our route to market as a pure play manufacturer, as well as our product offering, focused on providing options to meet specific customer requirements, is a true differentiator. Our current product portfolio serves better than 60% of all car types by volume. Further, as reported on our Q2 earnings call, Our recent order for tank car conversions of existing DOT-111 to DOT-117R tank cars is evidence of our capabilities to expand our offerings. And finally, we continue to strengthen our portfolio, including rail car enhancements that include car load efficiency and reduce long-term cost of rail car ownership. All of these efforts equate to a healthy mix of car types that ensure we meet diverse customer needs. We ended the third quarter with a backlog of 3,611 rail cars valued at approximately $372 million. We have experienced healthy inquiry activity and maintain a solid pipeline spanning many car types, including strong interest in conversions. Looking at the macro rail environment during the quarter, rail traffic in terms of car loadings remain relatively flat, just down 1.7% year over year, and largely driven by continued declines in coal car loadings. Petroleum, chemicals, and agricultural commodity groups, however, each posted positive year-over-year growth, which supports our continued focus on these car segments. With car load traffic expected to experience slight improvement as we close out 2024, and railroad key performance indicators, including velocity and dwell, largely tracking within their five-year averages, we see industry dynamics supporting new car demand consistent with 40,000 rail cars each year for the foreseeable future, principally driven by replacement rates as rail cars hit their mandated 50-year retirement. I'll now turn the call over to Mike for comments related to our financial performance. Mike?

Thanks, Matt, and good morning, everyone. To begin, I will talk through an overview of the quarter's financial results. Third quarter financial results were strong as we delivered significant year-over-year revenue growth and maintained healthy margins. Consolidated revenues for the third quarter of 2024 hold $113.3 million with deliveries of 961 rail cars compared to $61.9 million on deliveries of 503 rail cars in the third quarter of 2023. Gross profit in the third quarter of 2024 was $16.2 million with a gross margin of 14.3% compared to gross profit of $9.2 million and gross margin of 14.9% in the third quarter of last year. Lower gross margin performance as compared to the prior year was primarily driven by a mixed shift in rail cars delivered, with the prior year period delivering a number of conversion cars. Additionally, we saw a sequential improvement of 180 basis points from the second quarter of 2024, as we saw a favorable mix in car types delivered between the comparable periods. We continue to anticipate industry-leading freight car gross margins moving forward driven by the ongoing benefits of our facility operating at full capacity. SG&A for the third quarter of 2024 totaled $7.5 million, flat to the third quarter of 2023. Excluding stock-based compensation, SG&A as a percentage of revenue decreased 503 basis points from the prior year, further highlighting the substantial operating leverage we built into our business model. In the third quarter of 2024, we achieved adjusted EBITDA of $10.9 million, compared to $3.5 million in the third quarter of 2023, primarily driven by increased rail car deliveries between the comparable periods. For the third quarter of 2024, our adjusted net income was $7.3 million, or $0.08 per diluted share, compared to adjusted net income of $0.08 million, or a loss of $0.12 per share in the third quarter of last year. Adjusted net income accounts for the impact of certain non-cash items and non-recurring charges such as the change in fair market value of warrant liability, which fluctuates each quarter in line with the change in our share price during the period. During the quarter, we recognized a $110 million non-cash charge for our warrant liability due to the appreciation in our share price during the quarter. Capital expenditures for the third quarter of 2024 were approximately $1.5 million, and our full-year forecast of capital spend has been narrowed to a range of $5 million to $6 million. As I mentioned on last quarter's call, we continue to strengthen our cash flow generation capabilities. This quarter, we delivered $7.2 million in operating cash flow, representing the second consecutive quarter of positive operating cash flow and the largest operating cash flow generation in back-to-back quarters since the first quarter of 2017. As a result, we currently hold $44.8 million in cash and have no outstanding borrowings on our revolving credit facilities. As we strengthen our balance sheet through strong cash flow generation, we are well positioned to enhance our capital structure and invest in continued growth and value creation for our shareholders. With that financial overview, I'd like to now open the line for questions and answers.

Thank you. If you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star 2 if you would like to remove your question from the queue. And for participants using speakerphone, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. Our first question is from Mark Reachman with Noble Capital Markets. Please proceed.

Would you please discuss the key ingredients for a 14% plus gross margin quarter, including the product mix? And the reason I ask that question is that recognizing that the tank car conversions in 2026 and 2027 could enhance margin along with tank car production beginning in 2028. I was just wondering about the sustainability of base margins ahead of those product introductions.

Sure. Thanks, Mark. This is Mike. So in terms of mix, you know, like we said, we had a very healthy mix, strong gondolas, open top hoppers, and flat cars. And really what we saw this quarter was four lines operating at full capacity with a minimal number of changeovers. So it's just a lot of utilization of the facility, optimizing the financial results.

And then Matt mentioned that, you know, demand continues to track the replacement cycle. And with the incoming Trump administration, I was just wondering, if the expectation for higher economic growth changes that thought, or, you know, what are your thoughts regarding the potential for tariffs?

So Matt might take the first part of it, and I'll take the second part on tariffs.

Yeah, I think as it relates to demand, I still – it's a little early to tell what will happen from an economic perspective to drive growth. When we look at overall demand – And we look at new plants coming online that may drive new rail car demand. It seems to fall within this 40,000 per year car demand. It's really tied to replacements. Looking out on the horizon, there's 250,000 plus cars that will retire in the next five to 10 years. They're north of 40 years old. There doesn't seem to be a catalyst beyond that. the replacement demand that really would drive new cars required for the industry above $40,000.

And in terms of the tariff, to date the company has not had any tariffs directly affect our business, and we do not currently expect any future impact of tariffs on our business as of today.

And then just one final question. If you could just provide an update on plans to recapitalize the balance sheet.

Sure, so that still remains our strategic objective to accomplish this year. We're working towards that, and we'll provide more updates as we have time to provide.

Thank you very much. Thanks, Mark. Thanks, Matt.

Our next question is from Brendan McCarthy with Sidodian Company. Please proceed.

Hey, good morning, guys. Thanks for taking my questions. I just wanted to start off with the guidance or the guidance increase for the midpoint of adjusted EBITDA for 2024. What supports that increase there?

Sure. So the continued strong performance that we've had through the first three quarters with plan optimization, cost optimization, and then just getting towards the end of the year, we just have a little more visibility in and see the path to higher anticipated adjusted EBITDA for the full year based on how we performed year to date with the high gross margins thus far.

Got it. Okay. Thanks for that. And then looking at deliveries in the third quarter, which of the variability looking at deliveries compared to the second quarter of this year?

Our plant has, as we do some changeovers and we change from one product to another product, there's just some timing issues as you complete those changeovers, whether those shipments bend out of the quarter. So Q2, we were lighter on changeovers than we were on Q3, which explains the entire variance in total number of cars shipped. You know, 161 cars shipped is a solid throughput for us based on our guidance of 4,300 to 4,500 units. So we're still on track for that, and I don't expect to see anything that stops us from meeting that expectation.

Understood. Thanks, Vic.

And then looking at gross margins for the full year and just considering the guidance raised on the midpoint of adjusted EBITDA is it still reasonable to expect gross margins for 2024 to come in slightly below that of 2023? Um, I think that was, that was the expectation, uh, heading into the year just with the, with the, um, kind of hiccups in the, in the last quarter with the border issue. Is that still a reasonable expectation?

You know, I think from materially we'll be in line with last year, I would say it's a good expectation. Um, but materially in line with last year, the low single digits on gross margin for the full year. And that's mainly held back by Q1, as we talked about on the past couple calls. That was a lower gross margin quarter for us.

Right, right. Okay. One more question for me, just looking at the tank car conversion market. I guess, have you had further conversations with potential customers or customers on, you know, just an uptick in deal flow there?

Yeah, Brendan, this is Matt. Overall, the pipeline is very strong across multiple car types, including what we see in terms of activity and interest on the tank car conversion. So that is clearly a focus we remain engaged in as we go forward.

Understood. Thanks, Matt. That's all for me. Thanks, Brendan. Thanks, Brendan.

Our next question is a follow-up question from Mark Richman with Noble Capital Markets. Please proceed, Steve.

Thank you. I just had two follow-ups. The first is on the part sales business. And I was just wondering, you know, if, let's say, for example, the Trump administration undoes some of the, like the carbon emissions rule and coal-fired power plants, you know, retirements get extended or delayed. Do you see that as having a net positive effect on those real roads that are basically just hanging on to their existing coal cars? and having a greater need to extend the lives on those through part sales. I mean, what are the real drivers of your part sales? Is it coal cars? If you could just provide a little visibility there and also the growth profile of that business.

Sure. Hi, Mike. This is Mike. Yeah, to answer your question, the delay in retirements of coal plants would have a net positive impact to our historical parts sales or the core of it, which is replacement parts for the large coal fleet that Free Car America has out in the market, as well as its ABC fleet. In terms of growth patterns, you know, we've seen substantial growth, as you'll see in the footnotes, year over year in our parts business, and we continue to expand that, not only in the coal and ABC markets, but in general. We view there being an attractive growth profile in helping supply aftermarket parts to class two, three railroads and repair shops.

Thank you. And then the second question is just a follow up. You can kind of back into it from your guidance, but so like, you know, the first quarter that was obviously a weak margin quarter, second quarter is 12 and a half percent, third quarter 14.3%. So what are your kind of your expectations for the fourth quarter? Do you see those kind of going back in a 12.5% range, or what are kind of the drivers, you know, for the fourth quarter?

Sure. So, you know, we don't generally give quarter by quarter, but from the insinuation, you can see, you know, we will be expecting gross margins to decrease sequentially from Q3 to Q4 based on our full-year guidance. And a lot of that comes in with the timing of changeovers. So, you know, the deliveries were down as timing of changeovers was at the very end of Q3. which prevented some shipments in the last two weeks that otherwise would have had deliveries on pace with Q2. And some of that's going to be mixed driven as we continue to expand market share and get into new markets. We'll see a little bit of mixed shift away from where we were in Q3, which will bring us down slightly sequentially, but still north in double digits as we expect to end four years as well.

Okay, great. Thank you very much. You're welcome. Thank you.

This will conclude our question and answer session. I would now like to turn the call back over to Nick Randall for further remarks.

Thank you. I just wanted to close in summary. A couple of things. We grew our top line significantly, increasing 83% over the prior year period and delivered another quarter consistently solid gross margins of 14.3%. We have a strong cash position of $44.8 million with no outstanding borrowings and are well positioned with consistent costs of strong operating cash flow generation. We captured 22% market share on a robust order intake, gaining 3% sequentially on trailing 12-month basis. And we raised our midpoint of adjusted EBITDA guidance for the full year and we continue to see strong demand across various product lines that will have positive impacts as we enter 2025. and look forward to executing on our long-term growth prospects. With that, I would like to thank everyone for their participation, and have a great day.

Thank you. This will conclude today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time.