Titan Machinery Inc.

and Bo Larson, Chief Financial Officer. By now, everyone should have access to the earnings release for the fiscal first quarter ended April 30th, 2025, which is also available on Titan's investor relations website at ir.titanmachinery.com. In addition, we're providing a supplemental presentation to accompany today's prepared remarks, along with webcast and replay information, which can also be found on Titan's IR website within the events and presentations section. We would also like to remind everyone that the prepared remarks contain forward-looking statements and management may make additional forward-looking statements in response to your questions. The statements do not guarantee future performance and therefore undue reliance should not be placed upon them. These forward-looking statements are based on management's current expectations and involve inherent risks and uncertainties, including those identified in the forward-looking statement section of today's earnings release and the company's filings with the SEC to include the risk factors section of Titan's most recently filed annual report on Form 10-K and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. These risks and uncertainties could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in any forward-looking statements. Except as may be required by applicable law, Titan assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements that may be made in today's release or call. Please note that during today's call, we may discuss non-GAAP financial measures, including results on an adjusted basis. We believe these adjusted financial measures can facilitate a more complete analysis and greater transparency into Titan's ongoing financial performance, particularly when comparing underlying results from period to period. We've included reconciliations of these non-GAAP financial measures to their most directly comparable GAAP financial measures in today's release and supplemental presentation. At the conclusion of our prepared remarks, we'll open the call to take your questions. And with that, I'd now like to turn the call over to the company's president and CEO, Brian Knudson. Brian, please go ahead.

Thank you, Jeff. And good morning to everyone on the call. I'll start today by covering our performance for the quarter, followed by an update on our strategic initiatives and operational focus points for the year. I'll then discuss the current market environment and performance across each of our operating segments before turning the call over to Beau for his financial review and comments on our fiscal 2026 modeling assumptions. Our first quarter results demonstrated our ability to advance our short-term goals in a challenging market environment. And while headwinds persist across the agricultural sector, Our team remains focused on continuing to execute upon our initiative to optimize inventory and navigate through the trough of the cycle. We continue to anticipate a very subdued retail environment given the ongoing likelihood of weak farmer profitability with government support programs remaining an important but still very much undefined variable. While challenges persist in the marketplace, Our team's relentless focus on disciplined execution of our inventory reduction initiatives and our customer care strategy is allowing us to manage key variables of the business that will improve our position as we navigate this cycle. With that, I will now transition to our current inventory position. As you can see on our balance sheet, Total inventories were $1.1 billion as of April 30, 2025, essentially flat compared to fiscal 2025 year end. This is very much in line with our previously communicated expectations, as we've been receiving pre-sold units from the factory for delivery to customers in the first half of the year, while simultaneously taking in trades as we deliver those new units to customers. Overall, I'm quite pleased with our inventory progress, which has significantly improved our overall position over the last three quarters. Our customer care initiative remains a key focal point for us, with parts and service providing a stable foundation, even as equipment sales face cyclical pressure. This stability is critical in environments such as this, as parts and service will make up about a quarter of our total revenue mix, but well over half of our gross profit dollars this year. We are leveraging our scale and service capacity across our footprint, which is helping us maintain strong customer engagement. CNH recently validated these efforts by recognizing Tite Machinery with two of their top dealer awards, both centered around superior customer service, which is something that we take great pride in. In our domestic agriculture segment, while industry equipment demand remains subdued, the first quarter revenue was stronger than initially expected due to the timing of pre-sold equipment deliveries. On our last call, we mentioned that Q1 domestic ag could be down 40% to 45%, but noted that high volumes of pre-sales could significantly impact results. Indeed, we received and delivered a substantial amount of pre-sold equipment in Q1, which includes a pull forward of revenue we had in our plan for the second quarter. In the near term, we are still working through our backlog of pre-sold units. However, the back half of the year appears challenging with lower visibility and currently sluggish order activity. Farmers remain in a wait and see mode, with near-term sentiment hinging on commodity prices, moisture levels, and the potential of government farm aid. We are encouraging OEM partners to enhance programming for Q3 and Q4 to help stimulate demand in this environment. But absent that, it will remain challenging in the near term. It is helpful that spring planting across our domestic footprint has gone relatively well for our customers, However, we have received below average precipitation in much of our footprint. So timely rains throughout the growing season will remain critical. Before turning to construction, I'd also like to welcome the team from Farmers Implement and Irrigation. We closed on this two-store acquisition on May 15th, and it allows us to expand our New Holland presence in the productive Eastern South Dakota region. In our construction segment, Performance was largely in line with our expectations, and we anticipate that to continue throughout the year. Revenue showed modest growth over the prior year period, reflecting relative stability in this segment despite broader economic uncertainty as infrastructure projects continue to provide a base level of demand. However, as we experienced in domestic ag, We are seeing customers take a more cautious approach to capital expenditures, given interest rate concerns and broader economic uncertainty. Our European segment was a bright spot, particularly in Romania, where EU stimulus funds have increased buying activity, which we expect will extend through the end of September. While we anticipated a lift, the degree to which was hard to determine. However, it is clear this support will be meaningful for our operations in Romania. Our business in Ukraine is also continuing to drive growth despite the ongoing conflict with Russia. It has been impressive what our team is able to accomplish given those circumstances. Planting conditions across our European footprint are off to a good start, and industry volumes in Europe are expected to be more stable than in the United States. In our Australia segment, we're navigating through market conditions similar to our domestic ag segment. Additionally, the normalization of self-propelled sprayer deliveries that we discussed last quarter is playing out as expected, with the segment transitioning from working through nearly three years of delayed order backlog to selling in line with subdued retail demand. New order activity is modestly weaker than we had anticipated due to dry conditions combined with low commodity prices. And as a result, we are revising down our full-year revenue expectations, as Beau will discuss further. Sowing is well underway in Australia's winter crop season. But as previously mentioned, conditions are currently quite dry in much of our footprint. And thus, precipitation is very much needed to initiate crop development. In closing, while we are operating in a down market, the progress we've made on our inventory reduction and optimization initiatives reinforces our belief that we'll be well positioned by fiscal year end. Our confidence stems from the disciplined execution throughout our organization, the continued success of our parts and service businesses, and the progress we've made in positioning Titan to manage through this phase of the cycle. I want to express my sincere gratitude to our entire team for their tremendous focus and dedication during this more challenging period. Their ability to execute while maintaining exceptional customer service has been a key differentiator for us. Consequently, we remain steadfast in emerging from this period as a stronger company and delivering long-term value to our shareholders. With that, I will turn the call over to Beau for his financial review.

Thanks Brian and good morning everyone. Starting with our consolidated results for the fiscal 2026 first quarter. Total revenue is $594.3 million compared to $628.7 million in the prior year period. Reflecting a 5.5% decrease in same store sales driven by the factors that Brian discussed earlier. Gross profit for the first quarter was $90.9 million. compared to $121.8 million in the prior year period, and gross profit margin was 15.3%. These decreases were primarily driven by lower equipment margins, particularly in our domestic ag segment, resulting from our continued efforts to manage inventory to targeted levels. Operating expenses were $96.4 million for the first quarter of fiscal 2026. compared to $99.2 million in the prior year period. The year-over-year decrease of 2.8% was driven by lower variable expenses associated with the year-over-year decline in revenue and profitability. Floor plan and other interest expense was $11.1 million, as compared to $9.5 million in the prior year period. However, on a sequential basis, floor plan and other interest expense decreased 15.3%, reflecting our continued efforts to reduce interest-bearing inventory over the past few quarters. Floor plan interest expense is expected to continue to decline as we make additional progress on inventory reduction and mix optimization, and this is building toward a more meaningful decrease in floor plan interest expense next fiscal year. Net loss for the first quarter of fiscal 2026 was $13.2 million, or 58 cents per diluted share, compared to last year's first quarter net income of $9.4 million, or 41 cents per diluted share. Now turning to a brief overview of our segment results for the first quarter. Our agriculture segment realized a same-store sales decrease of 14.1%, to $384.4 million and benefited from a pull forward of pre-sold equipment deliveries, as Brian already mentioned. Agriculture segment pre-tax loss was $12.8 million compared to pre-tax income of $13 million in the first quarter of the prior year, resulting from softer retail demand and continued efforts to manage inventory at the targeted levels, both of which impacted equipment margins although to a lesser degree than the more intense margin contraction we experienced in the fourth quarter of last year. In our construction segment, same-store sales increased 0.9% to $72.1 million. As Brian mentioned, we continue to see relative stability in this segment despite broader macro uncertainty. Pre-tax loss was $4.2 million compared to pre-tax income of $0.3 million in the first quarter of the prior year. In our European segment, sales increased 44.2% to $93.9 million, which reflects a same-store sales increase of 44%, partially offset by a slight negative foreign currency impact. On a constant currency basis, revenue increased 47.5% and was led by Romania, which was bolstered by EU stimulus programs. Pre-tax income for the segment was $4.7 million, compared to pre-tax income of $1.4 million in the first quarter of last year. In our Australia segment, same-store sales decreased 1% to $44 million, which included a 4.6% negative foreign currency impact. On a constant currency basis, revenue increased $1.6 million, or 3.6%. Despite these results, retail demand was somewhat softer than we had anticipated, and we expect that that incremental softness will continue throughout the rest of the year. Additionally, the quarterly comparables get more challenging in this segment as we progress through the year, as last year was bolstered by nearly three years' worth of sprayer backlog. Pre-tax loss was $0.6 million compared to pre-tax loss of $0.5 million in the first quarter of last year. Now on to our balance sheet and inventory position. We had cash of $22 million and an adjusted debt to tangible net worth ratio of 1.8 as of April 30, 2025, which is well below our bank covenant of 3.5 times. Regarding inventory, in the first quarter, we reduced our equipment inventory by approximately $13 million sequentially to $913 million. bringing our cumulative equipment inventory reduction to approximately $406 million from peak levels in Q2 of the prior year. This was consistent with our expectations at the beginning of the year. The $100 million of additional equipment inventory reductions we discussed last quarter remains our target, with most of that reduction expected to come in the second half of this fiscal year. We continue to maintain strong corporate oversight and controls around inventory management. working to stay ahead of the aging curve created by the heavy influx of equipment shipments as supply chains normalized post-pandemic. Throughout this process, we continue to optimize our inventory composition by reducing aged inventory while building toward an optimal mix that better aligns with customer demand, which will have the added benefit of further reducing floor plan interest expense. With that, I'll finish by commenting on our fiscal 2026 full year guidance, which we are reiterating from an adjusted loss per diluted share perspective, but modifying in terms of revenue modeling assumptions for our international segments. Starting with our top line assumptions, for domestic agriculture segment, we continue to expect revenue to be down in the range of 20 to 25%. North America large ag industry volume is still expected to be down approximately 30% year over year, which aligns with the midpoint of our expectations for cash crop new equipment revenue. Our parts and service business continue to perform well, and we expect flattish revenue in these areas. For the construction segment, we are maintaining our expectations to be in the range of down 5% to down 10%. The Federal Infrastructure Bill continues to provide healthy support for industry fundamentals, but near-term economic uncertainty is impacting construction activity. We are updating revenue assumptions for our international segments based on localized dynamics. Our European segment is now expected to be up 23% to up 28%. This improved outlook is led by the aforementioned strength in Romania. For our Australia segment, we are updating our expected revenue to be down 20 to down 25%, as market conditions remain challenging and farmer sentiment is lower given dry conditions across much of our footprint. From a margin perspective, our fiscal 2026 assumptions for consolidated full year equipment margin are to be approximately 8%. Now turning to the Ag segment specifically. In the first quarter, equipment margins came in lower than expected at 3.3%, and we expect that the ag segment will have similar equipment margins in the second quarter. However, we expect their margins will improve in the back half of the year as we optimize our inventory mix and work toward our year-end targets. We are pleased with the progress we are making on this important initiative, and we are prioritizing this proactive approach to reducing used equipment levels. Consistent with our prior expectations, operating expenses are expected to decrease year over year on an absolute basis, which is expected to translate to approximately 17% of sales due to the lower revenue base we are forecasting as compared to the prior year. In summary, while we are making some refinements to Europe and Australia's revenue assumptions, We remain on track with our expectations for adjusted diluted loss per share in the range of $1.25 to $2. We remain focused on ensuring we're well positioned heading into fiscal 2027, where we expect to drive toward more normalized levels of profitability relative to the demand environment at that time.

This concludes our prepared comments.

Thank you. At this time, we'll be conducting a question and answer session. If you'd 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'd 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. Our first question comes from the line of Liam Burke with B. Reilly Securities. Please proceed with your question.

Thank you. Good morning, Brian. Good morning, Bob. Morning. Good morning.

I know the agricultural environment is tough, weather is bad, and at least the, I know government subsidies do not support equipment sales, but is there any positive outlook on the agricultural sector? I mean, are you seeing any positive moves here, or is it still just continues to be tough?

Yeah, there's, has been some of the government payments that have started to come through. So if you look at traditionally, there would be about $10 billion is the traditional level of government payment, which is at this point what has been approved. Some of our growers are starting to see those checks, Liam. So that is helping provide some stability. Also, as different trade negotiations are going on, and we see more deals get done here, that will further help as well. Recent rains we've received here in the upper Midwest have also helped with sentiment, and that will help with crop development. Australia is at a critical point. There is some rain in the forecast there, so that could help. But again, as you look at the USDA net farm income projections that they came out with earlier in the year, those were really heavily predicated around the government subsidies. And so that remaining, what they have projected to be up to an additional $37 billion is still very much an unknown. And so where that falls in, whether it's $10 billion or $45 billion here or where in between, is really going to have an impact this year, frankly.

Great. Fair enough. And on the construction side, there seems to be another area that the sector in general is cautious because of all the macro headwinds and uncertainties. But I would expect that construction would be a little more optimistic in terms of end markets potential. It seems to be just as challenging as agriculture.

It is certainly more positive. In talking with a lot of our contractor customers, the start to the year was a little bit slower, but their backlog of work, they're starting to get projects. It is starting to get filled up for them. Their attitudes are becoming more positive. It's certainly not what it was the past two years, that's for sure. It's definitely very positive. heavily depending on a rate environment. So any positive movement we did see in interest rates, even just a slightest bit, would certainly help there as well. And again, any stability around trade talks and general broader economy would help as well. But we definitely see more stability in the construction environment right now.

Yeah, I mean, maybe reiterating the same thing, just for some perspective, right? Construction's coming off of some really good years, and for us, record years, and we're talking about kind of a modest step back off of that, given some of the uncertainty in the higher interest rate environment. You compare that to ag, where we're really talking about trough level and kind of historically low industry volumes, quite a bit different outlook, I would say. So yeah, overall, down slightly but putting that in perspective being coming off of those highs a much different spot for construction than air great thank you very much thank you our next question comes from the line of ted jackson with northland securities please proceed with your question uh thanks um i wanted to circle back into first of all some of the government support

So USDA is looking for an additional $37 billion, and $10 billion has been put out. What kind of programs is the USDA looking to have happen? How do they get funded, and how do we follow that as analysts to see that it's indeed going to happen? That would be questionable.

So they are putting specifics behind this, and you can find that on the USDA webpage, and they have a timeline for the rest of the year. A lot of the additional payments coming out this year are specific to natural disaster type events that actually happened in 23 and 2024. So, you know, specific to droughts and supporting the livestock industry and then specific to other dry areas or wildfires supporting the ag industry. Kind of what they need to do is go state by state, who qualifies, how much money is going to be allocated in that region, how much gets allocated. to an individual grower. So all of that remains to be seen. But if you want to look at that timeline, it's available. There are a lot of specifics out there. So I would say it's pretty structured and we're all going to wait and see how this plays out and how much of that ultimately flows to customers that are on our footprint.

Yeah, and Ted, the main one that has really happened so far for the grain growers has been is what they call ECAP for the Emergency Commodity Assistance Program. And that was just under $10 billion, which is, again, in line with what the annual traditional level would be. And so, yeah, we'll remain to be watching here on the rest of the year. But a lot of times what that does is that certainly at normal yield levels that these prices would essentially get them close to a break even for the average grower or just help mitigate their loss. So in general, that's why you're hearing us and Deere and CNH all saying that, you know, that won't by itself drive equipment demand or equipment purchasing. They'll typically use those dollars to pay down debt and again, just to fight another year, if you will. But that said, again, anything incremental beyond that will help, and they can't defer that income. So there is a point here where it does start to help with demand and help allow them to update some much-needed machinery updates.

Thanks. Number two, when you go into your commentary, you're actually using the word trough instead of decline. I mean, is there something to be read in that? Do you feel that at this point, you know, we're kind of knocking along the bottom of the cycle? I mean, I'm not talking for a turnaround, but, you know, that more or less, you know, that there's more, I don't know, maybe predictability. Stability is probably too much of a word, but, you know, predictability or stability with regards to the ag markets in the U.S.? ?

Yeah, I mean, I guess what we would say about that is it's certainly not trying to call this specific year or specific quarter as being the bottom. But if you're just looking at history, right, and specifically, you know, going back through the year 2000, with large ag expected to be down 30% year over year, that really puts us about 36% below the average from 2024 back to the year 2000. just a little bit below the previous low point which was that 2016 2017 time period so it certainly aligns with it is at or slightly below the trough of of the last couple of decades which you know gives some support to the fact that we're somewhere near that and operating toward the bottom of the cycle here again whether you know that changes in the next couple quarters or it's next year we're not making that call but that that's kind of what we're alluding to right we're comparing that to history seeing that we are at those similar levels uh and not necessarily making the call on when it turns upward from here okay i got a couple more but i'm going to step aside and i'll jump back in line if they don't get asked thanks thanks ted

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, as a reminder, if you'd like to join the question queue, please press star one on your telephone keypad. Our next question comes from the line of Mick Dolbray with Baird. Please proceed with your question.

Good morning. Thank you for taking the question. I want to go back to discussing inventory, and it was encouraging to see additional progress this quarter, especially on the youth side. So, I guess I'm curious to get an update from you gentlemen in terms of regionally how you think about inventories. You mentioned that for your Europe business, you expect inventories to remain flattish. Maybe give us a little insight on what's going on with Australia. And then as you think about the North American footprint, are there particular areas where you still need to work this down? I mean, are there specific product lines or either regions or states where maybe you have a little more wood to chop than others?

Yeah. So, just to clarify a couple of points. And that $100 million target, I would say, is certainly a minimum that we look to achieve. Certainly looking to do better than that, but we're at expectations through Q1. So, You know let's get another three months in and see what we can do before we would revise that and what I would say from that hundreds You know painting it a little broadly here CE was in pretty good shape and really within a range overall certainly some optimization, but not really a hundred I wouldn't prescribe any of that hundred million decrease to them Australia Also, I mean, you're talking single digits probably in terms of the target. And then really mostly it would be about 60% ag and then 40% in Europe. So we're certainly expecting to see and driving a decrease in inventory in Europe this year and expecting that to unfold as we work through the rest of the year. Now, you know, within those, from an ag perspective, I would say that most of what we prescribe on there is focused on reducing used inventory levels and optimization across new and used. So you're asking areas that you need to focus on. We still have an aging of seasonal products that we got large quantity at the same time, kind of post-pandemic normalizations. We need to work through those so that we can dedicate more of that balance sheet to the high horsepower tractors, for example. So that's the optimization that we're talking about. On the Europe side, you know, they do a lot less used business than on the ag side, so there's not a whole lot there, and it's more about reducing the overall level and also working on that optimization. So, yeah, I guess I'd pause there to see if you had a follow-up.

No, that's very helpful. I want to talk a little bit about Europe and Look, I mean, the increase in revenue guidance, I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around that in terms of what is happening in Romania and how big Romania could be in order to generate this sort of swing. So I guess I would like more detail there. And I'm also curious how you think about margin. I mean, the margin here was 5% in Q1. And if you're raising the guidance to this extent, How do you think about the rest of the year?

Yeah, so first off, you know, from some more perspective for Romania, it represents about half of our business in Europe. So it is pretty substantial. And last year, given the significance of the droughts, we actually saw our Romanian business decrease 34% year over year. And that was most of the decrease for the whole Europe segment. So because of those droughts, actually industry and country essentially got cut in half. I mean, a significant drop, right? So what we're alluding to with the European Union funds is some European Union funds dedicated to Romania, some subvention funds specifically to support the industry. It's a broader piece, but as it relates to our business, Initially that was about 150 million euro dedicated to providing essentially assistance for farmers to buy certain types of equipment. So that's helping us drive significant increase in the interest and buying of certain types of equipment, maybe a little bit in terms of from an inventory perspective. It doesn't necessarily help us address all areas of inventory and certainly we need to some more to keep up with that demand as orders are coming in. But that's why you're seeing the swing from saying flat to up 5 to up 23 to 28. It's really getting Romania kind of swinging back to where it was and actually growing from about two years ago, given the significance of these funds and the opportunity it's providing for growers in the region.

And the margin?

Yeah, so that also is helpful from an equipment margin perspective in Europe. You know, we talked about overall for the year, consolidated equipment margin being 8%. You know, for Europe, expecting about 15.5%. They have historically quite a bit higher margin than the U.S. side. So I would say strength in margin on the Europe side, but a little weakness in margin on the domestic ag side. So domestic ag, you saw the 3.3, expecting something similar in Q2 and then improving from there. You know, in terms of overall priorities for us, what I'd just take the opportunity to reiterate is we've got confidence in executing the plan and bringing inventory down and thus that 100 million being a minimum and looking to build off of that. And that is the first priority, right? So in terms of actions we're taking, Incrementally, it proposes some potential compression on margin domestically. But on the Europe side, this is beneficial and we're seeing that helpful.

Okay. Last question on your domestic ag business. Again, I'm trying to figure out exactly how to get to your same store sales guidance given you know, timing of shipment. So can you help us out in terms of what Q2 looks like relative to the back half? And if we are seeing pretty sustained pressure on the back half, like it looks to me like your guidance implies, what gets the margin to be better than this negative 3% in the back half? Like what has to happen in order for you to get there? Thank you.

Yep. So, you know, a lot of it comes down to discipline on our side and, you know, ordering activity. You know, we're mostly focused on any orders we're placing, our pre-sales. So, you know, the pressure that all came through last year and, you know, ramped up as we progressed through the year was because we had a bunch of stock inventory available that's interest-bearing, right? And so we're working through that, and we've made really good progress on that. And we're going to continue to make progress. We did in Q1. We'll continue to in Q2, Q3 from there. So by the time we get to Q4, we're going to be in a drastically different position in terms of inventory health year over year, which helps us with that margin improvement. So it's, to me, absolutely, I agree that it's a challenging backdrop. The benefit is the significantly less order volume we have coming in, and specifically all of that being pre-sold, and just the progress we've made and will continue to make on inventory optimization. Because right now, in order to make that progress, we certainly are getting more aggressive with internal programs and promotions to get that progress done. And as we achieve that, there's less of that that we have to do in the back half, and setting us up as we exit FY26 to really operate at more of a normalized margin relative to the point of the cycle that we're in.

Okay, but just to clarify, just for Q2, same store sales in agriculture, should we be thinking down 25, down more, this timing versus Q1 versus Q2 of delivery? That's what I'm looking to clarify.

Yeah, and, you know, just to start with also in terms of same store. So the acquisition that we just did in Brookings and Watertown, we're really excited about. But in the press release we had mentioned last year it was $20 million in sales. This year, obviously, they're reflecting the market that we are. So it's not really – when you're looking at growth numbers, it's not really blurring the lines on same store, just to clarify that for you. And then in terms of what we're expecting – You know, going into the second quarter, we still have some backlog we're executing on, and certainly as we look at the back half of the year, the next couple of months are going to be really important in terms of what that order writing activity is. But that said, sort of as a base case, I've got, from an equipment perspective, Q2, Q3, Q4, each being down about 30% year over year for domestic ag. And then you mix in your parts and service that's more flattish. That's what I would prescribe for you. So then if you really, I'm zooming back out and I'll talk on a consolidated basis. You know, last year we were more 45, 46% of our total revenue was in the first half of the year. This year is going to be closer to 50% because of exactly what you're alluding to. Sort of the pre-sales in the first half of the year and then we're looking at and projecting forward more challenging order activity in the back half of the year.

Very helpful. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Ben Clevey with Lake Street Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question.

All right. Thanks for taking my questions. Congratulations. Nice start to the fiscal year here. First, I want to ask about your comments regarding hopeful initiatives from OEM partners on kind of stimulating demand in the second half of the year. I'm wondering if you can talk a bit about this from the perspective of kind of specifically what you would most like to see, the degree to which you have you know, these embedded within your guidance, and then the degree of confidence you have that these, you know, will come to pass.

Sure. Good morning, Ben.

Yeah, so, you know, first of all, we're looking at another year of weak farmer profitability, as we mentioned, and uncertainty on exports with our global trading partners. And as we see those continue to evolve. And as I mentioned, watching moisture levels and crop development. And so all that will further determine farmer sentiment and net farm income. But as it currently sits, the net farm income, as we mentioned, is very challenging. So that's where the OEMs, those discussions happen and looking to you know, pull many different levers, whether it's through, you know, financing programs, additional incentives, and what have you. So we'll continue to, you know, a lot of the front half of the year is already baked, as we've been talking about a lot of those pre-sales coming in, and you heard Bo talk about that. So we're really looking at back half of the year and as we get into order boards for next year here. And You know, there's been a lot of price increases that have happened with the equipment post-COVID here or even over the last 10 years. And... And there's been a lot of improvements and a lot of technology advancements with the equipment as well that really are driving that ROI on the equipment. So how the OEMs look to pull those different levers to keep their factory set levels that work for them and also from a dealer perspective to keep our sales up and keep the the fleet to a certain level of aging as well out there. As we are at, as Beau mentioned, 20-year trough levels here in demand, the further we go through the cycle at these levels, we'll continue to age the fleet and continue to increase replacement demand even as you go farther. So we'll continue to work with them on just various incentives to help stimulate demand, help bridge what is currently a gap for growers as you look at their net farm income levels compared to what the certain payments or cash flow levels of the equipment are in the trade prices right now. So various levers and tools we'll pull and look to team up together with the OEMs to bridge that gap right now.

And in terms of you asked the question, what's embedded in the guidance, I would say kind of a consistency with what we've seen from our strategic OEM partners over the going on 50 year relationship. So, you know, we try to provide as much clarity and transparency to them as in terms of what we're seeing. And right now, the pinch point is wheat farmer profitability, along with softer used values, creating a gap in that boot or the cash price that they need to bring in working with the OEMs to find a way to make those deals that work for the grower, the OEM, and ourselves.

Got it. Got it. I appreciate that from both of you. And then I guess I have a follow-up to this, maybe more for you, Bo, around these initiatives. I mean, it would seem to be that if this, you know, if this does come to pass, it would be an overwhelming positive for you. But I'm wondering if you can, you know, outline if there's any kind of, you know, resulting margin compression that you would see, you know, a need to lean into the floor plan payable in a more material manner? Any offsetting effect that those kind of initiatives would provide?

Well, to the extent that there's further support there, again, for a perspective, we're talking about historically low equipment margins for ourselves in domestic ag. To the extent that there's more support there, it helps support the view that we have or potentially a little bit upside in terms of where revenue could be. It could improve margins coming up off of really the floor of where we've been, but still well below normals that we should be operating at. So progress in that direction. And then, yeah, absolutely. As we free up cash flow, one of our main capital allocations is going towards interest-bearing debt So that could help pay that down faster. Overall, again, the priority is inventory reduction and we're doing what we need to and just working with our partners on support so that we can all get there as efficiently as possible.

Got it. Very good. Well, I appreciate the caller. Congratulations again.

Good start to the year. I'll get back to you. Thank you, Ben.

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Steve Dyer with Craig Hallam Capital Group. Please proceed with your question.

Hey, thanks. This is Matthew Raban for Steve. Two questions on parts and service here. Firstly, are we still expecting a slight increase year over year in the service gross margin? And then secondly, Beau, you noted last quarter traffic was a little bit slower to start the year. Any update on how the quarter trended and then any expectations for traffic through year end. Thanks.

No, no, that's fine. Yeah, so from a margin perspective, yeah, similar levels, slightly positive levels, that still remains the expectation. In terms of what unfolded in the first quarter, you know, I recall talking about it, we were expecting parts and service to be down mid to single digits in Q1. Same store growth last year, Q1, was almost 20%. It was like 18.9. So that was part of what was going into it. You know, we ended up down low single digits. So certainly within the realm or maybe even on the better side of what our expectations were there. And still expecting, you know, kind of a flattish viewpoint there in a world where equipment's down 30%. You know, to us, that's a real positive in just how sustainable that parts and service can be as long as it takes a ton of work. So it's not a given at all. But everything that we put behind it to be able to maintain sort of a flattish view there when equipment's down 30, hats off to the team on the great job that they do to execute. A lot of work to still get done this year to make that happen. But, you know, that's an important part of our business. It's I think we already talked about that, but a quarter of our revenue upwards of 60% of the gross profit dollars this year. You can see why we talk about it so much, why our customer care strategy is one of our number one strategic objectives, and why it'll be critically important going forward as we continue to move the business in the right direction.

That's great. Thanks, guys.

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes our time allowed for questions. I'll turn the floor back to Mr. Knutson for any final comments.

Thank you for your interest in Titan, and we look forward to updating you with our progress on our next call. And again, I just want to thank all of our employees for their execution and their efforts, and have a great day.

Thank you. This concludes today's conference call. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.