Century Communities, Inc.

Welcome to Century Community's fourth quarter and full year 2023 earnings conference call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, please press star, then two. Please note, this conference call is being recorded. I will now turn the conference over to Tyler Langton, Senior Vice President of Investor Relations for Century Communities. Thank you. You may begin.

Good afternoon. Thank you for joining us today for Century Communities' earnings conference call for the fourth quarter and full year 2023. Before the call begins, I would like to remind everyone that certain statements made during this call may constitute forward-looking statements. These statements are based on management's current expectations 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 latest 10-K as supplemented by our latest 10-Q and other SEC filings. We undertake no duty to update our forward-looking statements. 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 to substitute for the financial information presented in accordance with GAAP. Hosting the call today are Dale Francescan, Chairman and Co-Chief Executive Officer, Rob Francescan, Co-Chief Executive Officer and President, and Dave Messinger, Chief Financial Officer. Following today's prepared remarks, we will open the lineup for questions. With that, I'll turn the call over to Dale.

Thank you, Tyler, and good afternoon, everyone. I'd like to begin by saying that we are pleased not only with our results, but also with the meaningful improvement that we have seen in the housing market in general and our business in particular. Our orders and deliveries exceeded our expectations in the fourth quarter, and 2023 was our 21st consecutive year of profitability. We are optimistic about our outlook for 2024, given both the progress Century made over the course of 2023 and the underlying strength of the housing market. In the fourth quarter, our deliveries of 3,157 homes were a quarterly record and increased by 9% versus the prior year period. On a quarter-over-quarter basis, our deliveries increased by 39%, and grew sequentially for the third quarter in a row as we continued to benefit from improved cycle times and our increased level of home starts, which began in the first quarter of 2023. On the back of these higher deliveries, our fourth quarter revenues were $1.2 billion, a 36% sequential increase, and our highest level since the fourth quarter of 2021. Diluted earnings per share of $2.83 increased for the fourth sequential quarter and represented an improvement of 15% over year-ago levels. For the full year 2023, we delivered 9,568 homes and generated home sales revenues of $3.6 billion, exceeding the upper end of our guidance for both deliveries and home sales revenues. Our book value per share increased by 11% on a year-over-year basis to $75.12, a company record. And we ended the year with 22.4% net leverage, the lowest year-end level in our history as a public company. Our fourth quarter net new contracts increased 86%. to 2,340 homes compared to the fourth quarter 2022. On a sequential basis, our net orders in the fourth quarter increased by 9%. This level of sales activity was much stronger than we were anticipating as our fourth quarter net orders have experienced an average 10% sequential decline in each of the last four years. January has continued to see strength with our sales more than 30% ahead of the prior year's January. Regardless of the market served, the Century Communities and Century Complete brands target building and selling affordable homes with more than 90% of our fourth quarter deliveries priced below FHA limits. In addition to that affordability, Both brands build nearly 100% of their homes on a spec basis, which allows for direct cost control, availability of quick move-ins, and buyer certainty of financing. Our focus on affordability positions us well for future growth and continued success as we can target the widest range of potential homebuyers. Our average sales price of $376,000 is among the lowest of the publicly traded home builders, while Century Complete's average sales price came in at $258,000 this quarter. Additionally, through our Century Complete business, we have developed an expertise in entering and operating in secondary markets where there is less competition from the public home builders and where we believe we can take share from smaller private builders that are more capital-constrained and have higher development and construction costs. As a reminder, our century-complete business only acquires finished lots and typically on a just-in-time basis. Last week, we announced the strategic acquisition of the assets of Landmark Homes of Tennessee, which will grow Century's already sizable presence in the greater Nashville market through the addition of six active Landmark Homes communities. Importantly, this transaction provides us with a pipeline of controlled lots that will be delivered to us in the future as land development is completed and furthers our goal of increasing market share throughout and beyond our 18-state geographic footprint through the opportunistic acquisition of other home builders to augment the organic expansion of our land portfolio. In closing, I want to thank all of our team members for their hard work and dedication that drove significant improvements in our business in 2023 and that positioned Century for continued success in 2024 and beyond. I'll now turn the call over to Rob to discuss our operations and land position in more detail.