Meritage Homes Corporation

Greetings and welcome to the Meridage Homes second quarter 2024 Analyst 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. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Emily Tadano, Vice President of Investor Relations and ESG. Thank you. You may begin.

Thank you, Operator. Good morning and welcome to our Analyst Call to discuss our second quarter 2024 results. We issued the press release yesterday after the market closed. You can find it along with the slides we'll refer to during this call on our website at .meridagehomes.com or by selecting the Investor Relations link at the bottom of our home page. Please refer to slide two cautioning you that our statements during this call as well as in the earnings release and accompanying slides contain forward-looking statements. Those and any other projections represent the current opinions of management which are subject to change at any time and we assume no obligation to update them. Any forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain. Our actual results may be materially different than our expectations due to a wide variety of risk factors which we have identified and listed on this slide as well as in our earnings release and most recent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, specifically our 2023 annual report on Form 10-K and subsequent 10-Qs. We have also provided a reconciliation of certain non-GAAP financial measures referred to in our earnings release as compared to their closest related GAAP measures. With us today to discuss our results are Steve Hilton, Executive Chairman, Salif Lord, CEO, and Helus Ferruzza, Executive Vice President and CFO of Meridage Homes. We expect today's call to last about an hour. A replay will be available on our website later today. I'll now turn it over to Mr. Hilton.

Steve? Thank you Emily. Welcome to everyone listening in on our call. I'll start with a brief discussion covering current market conditions and some of our recent company milestones. Salif will highlight how our strategy is progressing and its impact on our quarterly performance and Hilo will provide a financial overview of the second quarter and forward-looking guidance. Q2 was another strong quarter for Meridage. Our products and price points are targeted at the largest segments of home buyer demand which drove a solid spring selling season for us leading to an average absorption pace of 4.5 sales per month this quarter and our highest second quarter sales orders of 3,799 homes. In the second quarter of 2024 our backlog conversion of 136% generated 4,118 home deliveries and home closing revenue of 1.7 billion. Home closing gross margin for the quarter was .9% which combined with SG&A leverage of .3% resulted in a diluted EPS of $6.31. As of June 30, 2024 we increased our book value per share 16% year over year to 134.41 and generated a return on equity of 18.3%. Now on to slide four for our recent milestones. We were truly honored to receive a wide range of recognition in the second quarter that reflects our corporate stewardship. We are the prestigious Avid Cup for the third consecutive year, the highest accolade presented to a builder for exceptional customer satisfaction scores. We once again celebrate our longstanding partnership with the EPA accepting the Market Leader Award for certified homes for the eleventh time. We were also one of three builders named Americans Climate Leaders by USA Today and lastly US News and World Report added us the list of the 2024-25 best companies to work for. We are proud to be recognized externally for our social sustainability initiatives. With that I'll now turn it over to Fleet. Thank you Steve.