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spk10: Welcome to Century Community's second quarter 2021 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A brief question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. Please note, this conference call is being recorded. I will now turn the conference call over to Hunter Wells, Vice President of Investor Relations for Century Community. Thank you. You may begin.
spk03: Good afternoon. Thank you for joining us today for Century Community's earnings conference call for the second quarter ended June 30th, 2021. Before the call begins, I would like to remind everyone that certain statements made in the course of this call are not based on historical information and may constitute forward-looking statements. These statements are based on management's current expectations and beliefs and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described or implied in the forward-looking statements. Certain of these risks and uncertainties can be found under the heading Risk Factors in the company's most recently filed annual report on Form 10-K, as supplemented by our other SEC filings. Our SEC filings are available at www.sec.gov and on our website at www.centurycommunities.com. The company undertakes no duty to update any forward-looking statements that are made during this call. Additionally, certain non-GAAP financial measures will be discussed on this conference call. The company's presentation of this information is not intended to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for the financial information presented in accordance with GAAP. Management will be available after the call should you have any questions that did not get answered. Hosting the call today are Dale Francescan, Chairman and Co-Chief Executive Officer of Rob Francescan, Co-Chief, Executive Officer and President, and David Messinger, Chief Financial Officer. Following today's remarks, we will open up the line for questions. With that, I will turn the call over to Dale.
spk04: Thank you, Hunter, and welcome everyone to our quarterly conference call. We're pleased to report our exceptional start to the year has continued, resulting in record second quarter results and our most profitable quarter ever. In the second quarter, we generated over a billion dollars in home sales revenues, a 34% increase, and the highest ever achieved in a single quarter. Net new home contracts increased 17% to 3,120 homes, driven by a 56% increase in sales from our Century Complete brand. And home deliveries increased 12% to 2,771 homes, both of which are quarterly records. Net income improved 207% to $118 million, and pre-tax income improved 204% to $152 million, both company records. We are extremely pleased with the health of our balance sheet. Stockholders' equity increased to $1.5 billion from $1.1 billion and our net home building debt to net capital ratio improved to 23% compared to 37.5%, liquidity of 1.3 billion. We ended the quarter with a backlog of 4,446 homes, a new record, valued at $1.8 billion, increases of 60% and 83% respectively. Given our disciplined business model, over 96% of these homes had already been started at quarter end, and across our two brands, less than 15% of our home deliveries were sold as pre-sales. For new second quarter sales, only 10% of the homes were pre-sales. There are many benefits to this model, particularly during periods of increased material and input costs, such as what we recently experienced with lumber. Spec homes also simplify the design process for homebuyers, promote shorter build times, and accelerate the cash flow and profits recognized upon the closing of the home. Selling homes already under construction provides better visibility into costs, protects our margins, and drives increased profitability to the bottom line. This meaningful focus on move-in ready homes has enabled Century to capture additional margin expansion, culminating in second quarter margins of 23.9%, up 700 basis points from 16.9% last year, and our fourth consecutive quarter of sequential margin improvement. The strong order activity we are experiencing reflects a healthy pricing environment supported by robust demand and tight inventory. While we expect this level of obtainable price increases to moderate at some point in the near future, it will be occurring at a time when certain material costs, such as lumber, are decreasing. As we have grown and scaled our organization, we have maintained disciplined controls on all of our costs. This focus resulted in SG&A as a percent of home sales improving to 9.9%, a 170 basis point improvement over last year. Our emphasis on controlling costs while growing our top line has resulted in increased profitability and a second quarter return on equity of 28%, our ninth consecutive quarter on quarter improvement. In May, we announced the initiation of a quarterly cash dividend of 15 cents per share, an amount that allows us to reward our stockholders with cash while maintaining sufficient cash levels as we simultaneously invest in our future growth and build on our business momentum. Looking ahead, we're committed to maintaining a disciplined approach to capital allocation and expect to drive further value creation for our stockholders. We're pleased with our tremendous progress, not only in the second quarter, but since going public in 2014. In May, we were again ranked the ninth largest home builder by the annual Builder 100 list. Demand for new homes is at record levels, supported by industry tailwinds such as low interest rates, increasing household formation, and a shortage of homes available at affordable price points. Across the majority of our markets, the months of supply of homes for resale is well below the current U.S. national average. Our enviable footprint continues to benefit from domestic migration to the smile states. These positive industry dynamics, coupled with our focus on the entry-level homebuyer, provide us with exciting opportunities and are a strong catalyst for continued growth across both our Century Communities and Century Complete brands. With that, I'll turn the call over to Rob to discuss our business in more detail.
spk05: Thank you, Dale. As we head into the second half of the year, we are extremely pleased with our second quarter and year-to-date results. Given constructive market dynamics and our substantial backlog of nearly 4,500 homes, we fully expect the results in the second half of 2021 will be as positive as the first half. We are experiencing broad-based demand across all of our markets, resulting in an absorption pace of 5.7 sales per community per month. Demand for homes today exceeds the available supply and sales pace is heavily influenced by the number of homes actually available for sale. Given that we only pre-sale homes in limited communities, our preference to sell homes later in the production cycle and the reduced number of unsold homes we have completing in the third quarter due to strong sales earlier in the year, we expect sales in Q3 to be down on a year-over-year basis. However, we have placed a strong emphasis on moving new subdivisions into a position of being able to start homes, and as a result, expect sales to rebound in the fourth quarter when we will have more homes available to be purchased. We ended the quarter with 184 selling communities, And moving forward, expect our community count to increase over the balance of the year, ending up more than 15% from the second quarter level. In keeping with our desire to increase the number of active selling communities, our total lot inventory continued to expand during the quarter, ending at 65,610 lots, an additional 8,074 lots from the first quarter. We remain conservative in our approach to land acquisition when considering potential opportunities. Our underwriting criteria emphasizes controlled rather than owned lots, utilizes absorption rates lower than today's current rates, and does not include home price appreciation. This is the sixth quarter in a row we've increased our overall percentage of controlled lots, ending the quarter with 43,049 lots under control or 66% of our total pipeline compared to only 45% a year ago, reflecting our ongoing focus on a capital-efficient land portfolio and our highest percentage since going public in 2014. This strategy is also reflected in our inventory composition where the percentage of our inventory dollars invested in land and land development has declined for four consecutive quarters, ending most recently at less than 38% of total inventory dollars as we have increased our investment in homes under construction. As we expand our lot positions to support our future trajectory, our preference for controlled lots over owned is key to our low-risk, land-light, high-return business strategy. These controlled lots also provide us with tremendous flexibility to adapt to changing market conditions as they may occur in the future. Over 10,000 of our controlled lots are under our Century Complete product line, and all will be fully finished and ready for vertical construction when acquired. We do not develop any land under Century Complete, which further promotes our land light acquisition strategy. We are typically starting the home concurrent with acquiring the land, enabling us to scale quickly in new markets and drive quicker asset turns. As an overall percentage of new sales, Century Complete grew sequentially from 32% in the first quarter to 42%, the highest in our history, and we remain intent on growing the Complete line as a larger percentage of our overall business in future years. This past quarter, Century Complete expanded into two new markets, Dallas-Fort Worth and Louisville, the largest metro areas in their respective states. Louisville was recently named one of the top 10 places to live, and over the next 10 years, job growth in Louisville is predicted to exceed and outpace the national average. Given the low local infrastructure required by this business line, geographic expansion can be scaled quickly and without a large investment. Along with Century Complete, Century Communities also entered Dallas-Fort Worth, the largest home building market in the U.S. We currently operate both brands in six states, including Arizona, Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas, and Texas, and see additional opportunities to increase penetration of other existing markets by adding a second brand. Given the current demand environment, Like our peers, we have experienced supply side and municipal disruptions that have impacted cycle times in some markets, causing them to extend on average by approximately two to four weeks. Since 2013, we've completed and fully integrated seven acquisitions, added 16 states, and created an extensive national footprint, which allows us to focus our continued growth through organic means, With a low-risk, land-light, high-return business strategy, we are well positioned to deliver continued top-line growth, profitability expansion, and enhanced returns to our stockholders. I'll now turn the call over to Dave to discuss our financial results in more detail.
spk06: Thank you, Rob. During the second quarter, net income increased 207% to a record $117.9 million, or $3.47 per diluted share, compared to $38.5 million and $1.15 per share in the prior year quarter. Second quarter pre-tax income was $152.1 million, an increase of 204%, and pre-tax margin was 14.6% compared to 6.5% in the prior year quarter. Home sales revenues for the second quarter increased to $1 billion, an increase of 34% compared to $747.4 million in the prior year quarter. Deliveries increased 12% to 2,771 homes, and net new contracts increased 17% to 3,120 homes, with Century Complete increasing by 56%, followed by the Mountain and West regions with respective increases of 30% and 28%. Our financial services business generated $29.9 million in revenues, compared to $25.7 million in the second quarter of last year, driven by an increase in the number of loans originated. Financial services pre-tax income was $11.7 million compared to $13 million, a result of more normalized gain-on-sale margins and the benefit of a Q2 2020 one-time item of approximately $3 million. Home building gross margin percentage improved to 23.9%. compared to 16.9% for the same period last year, an increase of 700 basis points. Adjusted home building gross margin percentage was 25.7% compared to 19.5% in the prior year quarter, and the highest achieved since our 2014 public offering. Margins of the percent of home sales, including adjusted, have increased sequentially each quarter since the second quarter of 2020. Looking at our backlog margins, we anticipate our current margins to be relatively stable into the third and fourth quarter and expect continued year-over-year margin improvement in the back half of this year. SG&A as a percent of home sales revenue improved 170 basis points to 9.9% in the second quarter compared to 11.6% in the prior year. This is the second sequential quarter our SG&A ratio was below 10%. Our net home building debt to net capital ratio improved to 23%, down significantly from 37.5% in the prior year quarter. We ended the quarter with approximately $457 million of cash and total liquidity of $1.3 billion. Our net home building debt to net capital ratio slightly increased sequentially due to investments in our increased backlog and spec homes under construction while reducing our investment in owned land. In the second quarter, We secured a new credit agreement, increasing our unsecured revolving credit facility to $800 million with a $200 million accordion and a five-year term maturing in April of 2026. We have no borrowings outstanding on our revolving credit facility. Our tax rate was 22.5% in the second quarter compared to 23.3% last year. Due to our pricing power from the strong demand for our homes, we are increasing our full-year revenue guidance to be in the range of $3.8 billion to $4.1 billion. We reiterate our full year expectations for home deliveries to be in the range of 10,750 homes to 11,750 homes. We're extremely pleased with our quarterly results and remain confident in our future financial and operational performance. Market fundamentals remain positive and we are well positioned for a strong second half of the year. With that, I'll open the line for questions. Operator?
spk10: Thank you. We will now be conducting a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad. The 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. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star key.
spk11: One moment, please, while we poll for questions. Thank you. Our first question comes from Michael Rahat with JP Morgan.
spk10: Please proceed with your question.
spk02: Hi, this is Maggie on for Mike. Congrats on the quarter and thanks for taking my questions. First question, I just was hoping you could talk a little bit more about the efforts to kind of meter sales and how your sales pace trended towards the end of the quarter. Specifically, the sales pace came in a good bit higher than what you were seeing in the update at the beginning of June. So I was hoping you could get a little bit more color there. Thanks.
spk04: Sure. Be happy to. This is Dale, Maggie. While we don't intentionally meter sales, the similar effect kind of occurs when because we only release a small number of homes at a time in a subdivision so that we can increase sales prices with each new release. We did see sales pick up in the last three weeks of June, and that's just really a function on the number of homes that we had available to be purchased.
spk02: Got it. Thank you. Second, just on gross margins, I think you said that you expect kind of current margins to remain relatively stable through the back half of the year. Could you talk about kind of the outlook for cost inflation that you're baking into that? And to the extent later this year that costs do come down, is there the potential to see a bit of a lift to those gross margins?
spk06: Yeah, so this is Dave. So the way we kind of look at that, you know, given the fact, you know, 85% plus of our homes are spec, are sold and delivered under a spec construction basis, we've got a decent idea of where our costs are going to be coming in. And so when we look at our backlog and what we're selling today, we feel comfortable saying that our margins should be relatively stable and constant through the next couple quarters compared to the first half of this year. And you're going to see increased lumber prices roll through in Q3 and Q4. So we've taken that into account as well.
spk11: Got it. Thank you. Thank you. Our next question comes from Deepa Raghavan with Wells Fargo.
spk10: Please proceed with your question.
spk07: Hi. Good evening. Thanks for taking the question. Can you clarify your comments on Q3 delivery guidance you provided? I don't know if I heard that right. And also, how should we think about Q4 rebound, just given the widespread guide that you're still maintaining, 10.75 to 11.75? This is Dave.
spk06: I think what you heard was Dale's prepared comments talking about sales in Q3. As we, you know, our closing guidance, you know, right now is still at the 10-750 to 11-750, and we fully expect to meet that range through the back half of this year. But we didn't talk about anything, you know, regarding that, like you're mentioning.
spk07: Okay. Okay. Any... how do we think, okay, so what, is there like a production constraint that's actually causing you to kind of, you know, not fulfill despite the healthy order activity that you're seeing and the healthy backlogs or just, you know, how do, or is it still some of those reopening of community counts that you had issues with in the past few months that's actually causing the, you know, delivery cadence to not move higher? Just curious, is there any Any color there you could provide?
spk04: Sure. Deepa, this is Dale. It's really, in terms of closings, we've been impacted like all the other home builders with both supply chain and municipal limitations. So when we look at that, that's the reason, notwithstanding the strong sales on the strong market, we're seeing anywhere on average in select markets from delays of two weeks to four weeks. And there's a variety of challenges that come up in the supply chain. And from market to market, they're not always the same. And from time to time, even within the same market, they're different ones. So that's why when we look at our closings, we have factored in the fact that we've got some elongation of our cycle times.
spk07: Oh, okay.
spk11: Got it. No, thanks. Thanks. I'll follow up offline. Thank you. Our next question comes from Alex Rigel with B Reilly SBR.
spk10: Please proceed with your question.
spk08: Thank you for taking my question and great quarter, gentlemen. First question. You mentioned in the remarks that you expect prices to moderate. Can you expand upon that a little bit?
spk04: Well, prices have gone up significantly, as I think everybody knows so far this year. And while we currently have not reached a point where we can't continue to increase prices, we're just anticipating that that's going to occur at some time in the future. When that is, we don't know because we haven't reached it. But we're just, as we look forward, we don't think we can just continue to raise prices on an ongoing basis. However, the good news is we're starting to see some relief, certainly on lumber, and we're not seeing the same pressure on other input costs that we had earlier in the year. And so we think that all balances itself out.
spk08: And then could you comment a little bit on land costs and how inflation and price inflation has affected land costs?
spk05: Well, like you would imagine, Alex, land costs have risen. They are at a high point in the cycle for sure. But with that said, we're looking at structuring deals a little differently, as well as when you look at our 66% of controlled lots in our portfolio, not only do we have room to run and really grow community count in the future, but we feel like we have mitigated risk by the way we've structured things. But, yes, land prices have increased.
spk11: Very helpful. Thank you very much. You're welcome. Thank you.
spk10: Our next question comes from Alan Ratner with Zellman & Associates. Please proceed with your question.
spk00: Hey, guys. Good afternoon. Nice quarter, and thanks for taking my questions. First, I would love to follow up on that prior question about the comments about pricing power. Again, I don't think that's too earth-shattering of a statement to say that we can't continue at the rate we're at right now. You mentioned you haven't hit that point of elasticity yet in terms of demand. I'm curious, when you look at primarily your entry-level buyers in century complete, how does the credit profile of that buyer look today on these higher home prices, recognizing, of course, that incomes have not gone up nearly to the extent that you guys have been raising prices over the last year?
spk04: Well, when you look at it, the credit profile really hasn't changed. And We've raised prices on the Century Complete line as we have in the Century Community line. But as you mentioned, we believe there is price elasticity in the market. And if you have certain people that are priced out of certain of our offerings, we think other people that are priced out of other people's even higher offerings drop down into our price point. And as a leader in offering affordable, lower-priced homes, we think that's an advantage for us.
spk00: Gotcha. Okay, that's helpful. Second question, you know, I think you made a comment when you were talking about your expected order trajectory for the remainder of the year, that you're going to have more inventory available for sale on the fourth quarter. And I would imagine, you know, some of that's at least being driven by the community account growth that you guys are expecting, since you probably built up some inventory ahead of those community openings. So we're hearing similar comments from just about every other builder, you know, just about every builders guiding for community count growth through the remainder of the year. We know, even though you guys don't necessarily do this, a lot of builders are building up spec inventory and kind of holding them off the market for the time being until they hit a point of construction where they have more visibility into their costs. So I'm curious if you've given any thought to what impact that could have on the market if all of the builders do kind of come forward with more supply over the next three to six months. And how would you respond if the demand for that inventory is perhaps not as strong as you've been seeing over the last few months as inventory has been so constrained?
spk04: Well, Alan, the demand we're seeing remains extremely strong. And our sales pace is really impacted by the number of homes that we actually have available to purchase. So when we look at the interest list that we have in our various communities and the feedback that we're getting from our people on the ground, we think there's a tremendous amount of demand that's out there that just hasn't been able to be satisfied with the available supply. So as we look ahead, I'm sure that other builders will have additional inventory, but we think there's plenty of demand to satisfy all of that inventory that's going to be coming onto the market. And the other thing with the production delays that are out there, all that inventory starts getting pushed out a little further too. And some of those delays, none of us really know where they are or what that's going to be as we continue to move forward. If there's a finite number of of labor resources and material resources. And if everybody is trying to increase their inventory, then the actual deliveries for everybody are gonna get pushed out even further.
spk11: Makes sense. All right, guys, thanks a lot. You're welcome. Thanks. Thank you. Our next question comes from Alex Barron with Housing Research Center.
spk10: Please proceed with your question.
spk09: Hey, gentlemen, great job in the quarter. Thanks. On your last comment about, you know, if everybody starts more homes, things will get pushed out further. What is your current, can you talk about how many homes you guys started, you know, this quarter versus last quarter and how, what's your thought process for the second half of the year in terms of starts? You know, is it the plan to also meet our starts? or to accelerate starts? How are you guys thinking about it?
spk04: Well, in terms of starts, we started more homes in the second quarter than we did in the first quarter. As we look forward to the balance of the year, we're going to be starting homes based on what we are comfortable is going to be absorbed. As I said a few moments ago, So far, what we're seeing is the demand will certainly be able to absorb all the homes that we offer for sale. If we start seeing that something's changed, then, you know, we'll back off on that. But that's not what we're anticipating.
spk09: Okay, great. So, you know, obviously, I think, I don't know, 75%, 80% of your sales are typically specs. And You know, in the past, it was usually the opposite where, you know, you would have specs, people show up and they buy them and they close. Now it's the other way where sometimes people show up and there isn't enough inventory, but your business model hasn't changed. So at what stage, you know, are you guys releasing the homes for sale now, you know, those same specs? Is it, you know, as soon as you... as soon as you started, you're willing to put it out on the market? Or is it more like one or two months before it's ready to get delivered?
spk04: You know, in many cases, we're releasing them later in the production cycle. The one thing that we want to make sure that we do is that we've got our costs locked in before we set a price on that home and release it for sale. And so that's really the gating item is to make sure that we've We're comfortable with where our costs are so that we know that we can appropriately price it. But in general, we are releasing homes a bit later in the production cycle.
spk11: Got it. Okay, I'll get back in the queue. Thanks. Sure. Thank you. Our next question comes from Jay McCandless with Wedbush.
spk10: Please proceed with your question.
spk01: Hey, good afternoon, everyone. The first question I had, could you reiterate or repeat the community count guidance? I've heard part of it, but not the whole guidance.
spk06: Yeah, no problem. This is Dave. We ended the second quarter with 184 communities, and we expect to be up 15% by the end of this year.
spk01: So that would get us to something in the low twos for your actual fourth quarter ending numbers?
spk06: you'd be a little over 210.
spk01: Okay. All right. Just want to make sure on that. And then the second question I had, for homes that you're starting now with the delays that you've talked about, are most of those starts getting sold during the quarter or is there some of those are pulling over into the fourth quarter now with some of the delays you're having to deal with or into the next quarter after you started it?
spk04: Yeah, we don't sell every home in the quarter that we started. And really, because as I said earlier, I mean, we're releasing things later in the production cycle. And some of that is dependent on the subdivision, how many homes we have under construction. And we're mindful of the supply chain challenges and labor challenges. And it doesn't make any sense to start homes and move a home forward and sell a home if we're getting delayed to a point where we don't have enough labor or materials in a particular market to be able to move that amount of inventory.
spk01: And then the last question I had, with the complete business, is the availability of finished lots, do you support that business improving or are you finding Because I know y'all have gone into some smaller markets, Panhandle of Florida and some places like that. Are you finding a larger supply or the developers in some of these smaller markets able to bring more product for Century to purchase?
spk05: Yes, we're finding that. And Jay, if you just look at the numbers on a year-over-year basis, we're up 80% in that business to an owned and controlled of almost 15,000 lots. So we've really increased And, you know, as a reminder, we only do finished lots there. So we've really increased our number of lots. And, you know, of course, like anything else, you know, as I said previously, land is competitive now, but we have been able to compete and get the positions we need.
spk01: That's great.
spk11: Thanks for taking my questions. You're welcome. Thanks. Thank you. Our next question comes from Alex Barron with Housing Research Center.
spk10: Please proceed with your question.
spk09: Yeah, thanks for taking my follow-up. So, I mean, this quarter you guys had a very strong margin surprise or upside versus last quarter. And I'm guessing part of that is, you know, that you had these homes started probably in 2020 and then the prices went up. and you guys had already locked in the cost, so you benefited from that. So would you expect that same sort of dynamic to play out, you know, in the next couple quarters, or is it going to be more muted because now the lumber costs are going to be flowing through?
spk06: Hey, Alex, this is Dave. No, I think what we said earlier was, you know, as we look at the back half of the year and how we've been pricing what we see in backlog, we expect our margins in quarters three and four to be relatively constant with where we've been producing them the first half of the year. So I don't think you're going to see some of those skyrocket, but we'll be able to still produce healthy margins out of the home building business.
spk09: Okay. And on the SG&A side, I've seen several builders have been cutting back commissions towards brokers and even towards sometimes their internal salespeople. Are you guys doing either of those things?
spk04: You know, Alex, we've got, in all of our markets, we've got deep realtor relationships, and we value those. Although, as we've seen our competitors in many of the markets reduce the commissions that they pay to third-party realtors, we've followed suit in a number of markets as well.
spk11: Got it. Okay. Thanks so much, gentlemen. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. There are no further questions at this time.
spk10: I would now like to turn the line back over to Dale for any closing remarks.
spk04: I want to take a moment just to recognize the resiliency and agility of our entire team. Their commitment and dedication enabled us to achieve our most successful and profitable quarter ever. This impressive performance would not have been possible without them. We'd also like to thank you all for your time today. We appreciate your continued support and investment and look forward to speaking to you again next quarter.
spk11: This concludes today's conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time and log on.
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