Earnings Labs

Titan Machinery Inc. (TITN)

Q4 2013 Earnings Call· Wed, Apr 10, 2013

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by. Welcome to today's Titan Machinery, Inc. Fourth Quarter Fiscal Year 2013 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Hosting today's conference will be John Mills of ICR. As a reminder, today's conference is being recorded. And now I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. John Mills. Please go ahead, sir.

John Mills

Analyst

Thank you. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Titan Machinery's fourth quarter and full year fiscal 2013 earnings conference call. On the call today from the company are David Meyer, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; Peter Christianson, President and Chief Operating Officer; and Mark Kalvoda, Chief Financial Officer. By now, everyone should have access to the earnings release for the fiscal fourth quarter and full year ended January 31, 2013, which went out this morning at approximately 6:45 a.m. Eastern Time. If you have not received the release, it is available on the Investor Relations portion of Titan's website at titanmachinery.com. This call is being webcast, and a replay will be available on the company's website as well. In addition, we are providing a slide presentation to accompany today's prepared remarks. We suggest you access the presentation now by going to Titan's website and clicking on the Investor Relations tab. The presentation is directly below the webcast information in the middle of the page. Before we begin, we would 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. These statements do not guarantee future performance, and therefore, undue reliance should not be placed upon them. These statements are based on current expectations of management and involve inherent risks and uncertainties, including those identified in the Risk Factors section of Titan's most recently filed 10-K and subsequent 10-Qs. These risk factors contain a more detailed discussion of the factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in any forward-looking statements. Titan assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements that may be made in today's release or call. Lastly, due to the number of participants on the call today, we ask that you keep your question period to 1 or 2 questions and then rejoin the queue. The call will last approximately 45 minutes. David Meyer will provide highlights of the company's fourth quarter results, a general update on the company's business and review the company's recent acquisitions. Then Mark Kalvoda will review the financial results in more detail, and Peter Christianson will discuss the company's segment operating results and its fiscal 2014 annual revenue, net income, earnings per share guidance ranges, along with its outlook modeling assumptions. Then we will open the call to take your questions. Now, I would like to open the call to the company's Chairman and CEO, Mr. David Meyer. Go ahead, David.

David Joseph Meyer

Analyst

Thank you, John. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to our fourth quarter and full year fiscal 2013 earnings conference call. As John mentioned, to help you follow today's prepared remarks, we have provided a slide presentation, which you can access on the Investor Relations portion of our website at titanmachinery.com. If you click on the Investor Relations tab on the right side of the page, you'll see the presentation directly below the webcast in the middle of the page. On Slide 2, you'll see our fourth quarter and full year fiscal 2013 results. Our revenue for the fourth quarter was $784.5 million. Our pretax income was $25.8 million, and we earned $0.73 per diluted share. For the full fiscal year, we exceeded the top end of our guidance and generated $2.2 billion of revenue. Our pretax income was $70.7 million and we earned $2 per diluted share. On our call today, we will discuss the company's continued top line growth, driven by organic and acquired growth across both our Agriculture and Construction segments. For our Ag business, despite last year's drought that impacted customer sentiment and pressured our margins, we grew our full year Ag pretax income by 13% in fiscal 2013 compared to fiscal 2012. For our Construction business, we continue to grow our top line revenue. However, our bottom line results for this segment were impacted by the cost of expanding our network, difficult industry conditions, as well as falling short on our operational targets. On today's call, we will discuss some of the factors that are affecting our bottom line results for this segment, as well some of the steps we are taking to improve the profitability of this business in fiscal 2014. In addition, Mark will discuss the progress we achieved with our overall company inventory strategy…

Mark P. Kalvoda

Analyst

Thanks, David. Turning to Slide 7. Our total revenue for the fiscal 2013's fourth quarter grew 29.2% to $784.5 million, with approximately 67% from organic growth and 33% from acquisition growth. All of our revenue sources contributed to this quarter-over-quarter increase. The revenue growth reflects higher sales in both our Agriculture and Construction segments. Our sales mix was weighted more towards the equipment revenue this quarter and was reflected in our overall gross profit margins. Additionally, our lower rental utilization rate drove lower-than-expected rental revenue. Peter will discuss this in more detail in a few moments. On Slide 8, our gross profit for the quarter increased 12.6% to $104.5 million, reflecting higher revenue. Our gross profit margin was 13.3% compared to 15.3% for the same quarter last year. The decrease in our gross margins was primarily due to sales mix and lower equipment margins. As I mentioned on the previous slide, we experienced the change in sales mix as our higher-margin Parts and Service business made up a lower percentage of our total gross profit. The fourth quarter equipment margins of 9.5% were in line with our previous guidance, but were lower than the prior year quarter's equipment margin of 11%. These lower quarter-over-quarter margins were impacted by a competitive environment where industry inventory levels continue to overhang the market. Our operating expenses as a percentage of net sales in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2013 were 9.2% compared to 9.9% for the same quarter last year. This reflects our operating leverage across higher revenues. Our overall interest expense increased approximately 30 basis points. As a percentage of sales, our floorplan interest expense was relatively flat, but our other interest expense increased 30 basis points as a result of our April 2012 convertible debt offering. Our pretax margin was 3.3%…

Peter J. Christianson

Analyst

Thanks, Mark. On Slide 14, you'll see an overview of our segment results for the fourth quarter. Agricultural sales were $699.4 million, up 32.9%, driven by acquisitions and organic growth. We generated pretax --- Ag pretax income of $32.8 million, an increase of 7.8% compared to the prior year period. The improvement in pretax income primarily reflects higher income sales, higher equipment sales, partially offset by lower equipment margins and increased floorplan interest expense, as Mark mentioned earlier. Our Ag results were in line with our expectations. Turning to our Construction segment, our revenue increased to $108.6 million, up 11.1%, which reflected acquired growth and organic growth. Construction segment pretax loss was $5.5 million, compared to a pretax income of $1 million in the prior year quarter. Our Construction pretax results were less than we anticipated by approximately $7 million or approximately $0.20 per diluted share. The results reflected missing certain operating targets for this segment due to a number of factors. The majority of the miss was due to less-than-anticipated rental revenues. The additional rental revenues drive significantly higher margins as the primary costs associated with the rental fleet have already been recognized. An additional factor is lower equipment margins, driven by an increased industry equipment inventory availability and the associated competitive pricing pressure, especially in metro areas. The Construction segment operating expenses reflected increased cost of expanding the network by 7 locations in fiscal 2013. These recent acquisitions have a materially higher percentage of expenses relative to low sales volume. Finally, our construction pretax income was impacted by increased floorplan interest expense associated with our higher inventory levels. In summary, we continue to grow the Construction segment of our business. And although the operating margins are less than anticipated, we're confident this segment of our business represents significant…

David Joseph Meyer

Analyst

All right. Thanks, Peter. Before we take your questions and answers, I want to express our confidence on our business model, the North America and Eastern European footprint and the quality of our dedicated employee group at all levels of our company. We continue to see a long runway of consolidation in the farm equipment distribution channel. Last December, on our Q3 earnings call, we were confident in reiterating our annual guidance. And I don't want the excellent execution of our Ag segment to be overshadowed by the disappointing year end performance of our Construction segment. I want you to be assured, we are focused on the construction equipment business and are putting the changes in place to make our construction equipment stores long-term strong contributors to the success of our company. Operator, we are now ready for the question-and-answer period for the call.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] We will take your first question and that will come from Michael Cox with Piper Jaffray.

Michael E. Cox - Piper Jaffray Companies, Research Division

Analyst

My questions are pertaining to the Construction segment and on Rental in particular. Given the challenges that you've had and that -- and getting that utilization up and -- a question on why you embed a 35% utilization rate into your guidance. Or maybe the question is, what sort -- what gives you the confidence or the visibility that you can achieve that target this year?

Peter J. Christianson

Analyst

Well, Michael, as you recall, last year, we really started on our initiative to build into that business, and it really affected us in our -- in the front half of the year as we ramped up the fleet. That had a big impact on our annual utilization, and so we came in with an annual utilization last year at 31%. And so we felt like we were confident that we can improve that utilization to 35% on an annual basis going forward for fiscal 2014. We have recruited the rental account managers there in place out on our markets and we have the fleets in place, so we felt that we could raise that utilization by 4%. Into the -- so the 35% of the mid-range of 34% to 36%.

Michael E. Cox - Piper Jaffray Companies, Research Division

Analyst

Right, right. And my -- and I guess, my follow-up question is, on the M&A strategy, considering the profit challenges that you faced in Construction, why continue to invest in buying dealerships prior to getting the model really figured out?

David Joseph Meyer

Analyst

Well, Michael, this is Dave here. We've had some really good performing construction stores. So really what this did is -- I think this solidified our footprint. We've got this contiguous footprint now from the Mexican border to Canadian border. This gives us the scale that I think we can really go in and make that investment and do the job that's going to take in that sector. So fundamentally, it's a strong business, and we've got some good people here and we're being opportunistic, I think, and it's another growth platform out there right now, and we're confident that, like I said, it's -- fundamentally, the construction store model is a fundamentally strong producer, historically, it has been. And that's what we're going to do on our company.

Operator

Operator

We'll move next to Rick Nelson from Stephens.

N. Richard Nelson - Stephens Inc., Research Division

Analyst

About the new guidance, any assumptions that, that would make an uptick in Construction segment profitability?

Peter J. Christianson

Analyst

Could you repeat that, Rick? We couldn't hear you.

N. Richard Nelson - Stephens Inc., Research Division

Analyst

The new EPS guidance of $2 to $2.30, I'm curious what that assumes about the profitability of the Construction segment. I see the same-store sales guidance you are providing, but...

Mark P. Kalvoda

Analyst

Yes, Rick. Mark here. What we have in our guidance for this next year in that range is we do assume that we're going to get back to a low level of profitability on the C side of the business. We do have to keep in mind that there is more seasonality on that Construction business, especially with the Rental Fleet, and that second and third quarter are kind of the bigger quarters for that business.

N. Richard Nelson - Stephens Inc., Research Division

Analyst

Got you. And then a follow-up on Construction, the equipment margin pressures that you talked about on that segment. If you could provide some more color there as to what's happening in used, and maybe what the absolute levels of margins are in Construction, and what sort of year-over-year declines we saw.

Peter J. Christianson

Analyst

Well, I can give some color on the overall positioning in the industry and the pressure on the margins that, industry-wise, there was a build on inventory, both at the manufacturer and the dealership levels, and they came into this year and we're still working on getting that level down in line with end user demand. And so we see that, probably, the front half of this year, that's going to continue to have pressure on our equipment margins in that segment.

N. Richard Nelson - Stephens Inc., Research Division

Analyst

Peter, and your...

Peter J. Christianson

Analyst

Relative to the -- go ahead.

N. Richard Nelson - Stephens Inc., Research Division

Analyst

Guiding the consolidated margin at the mid-point to be about the same as it was to this past fiscal year. I guess, my question is, what that assumes about construction pressures in the first half, but then fully offset in the second half?

Mark P. Kalvoda

Analyst

Yes. Rick, Mark here again. Overall, so our -- overall, our equipment margins ended at like 9.3% this year. And the midpoint of that range that Peter talked about was right around that 9.3%, 9.25% if you take the exact midpoint. And as between Construction and Ag, we really don't break it out. But essentially, we're saying, similar margins is baked into our guidance for the next year on equipment margins for the overall business.

Operator

Operator

We'll move on to Mig Dobre from Robert W. Baird. Mircea Dobre - Robert W. Baird & Co. Incorporated, Research Division: I guess my first question is on Parts and Services where I understand you guys highlighted some mix issues and equipment and the Rental Fleet, but I guess that does not impact Parts and Services. And yet, even as we're seeing revenue growth on a year-over-year basis in Parts and Services, gross margins were lower in both categories. So I'm trying to understand exactly what the dynamics are there, because my impression from looking at the numbers is that the pressure on the gross margin in Parts and Services, primarily, owed to Construction. Is that the case? What are we looking at here?

Peter J. Christianson

Analyst

Well, on the Parts side of the business, Mig, you've got a couple of things impacting that, and that is that we had a higher percentage of -- more of the GPS equipment and other attachments that we quote or that we sell through our revenue stream as parts. And these attachments and GPS equipment have lower margins than the standard after-sale replacement parts that you would put into driveline components. So that does have an impact on our margin on parts. In addition to that, we did have a reduction in our -- in some of our parts ordering discounts, which also had an impact in the last -- in the back half of fiscal 2014. Mircea Dobre - Robert W. Baird & Co. Incorporated, Research Division: What about Services?

Peter J. Christianson

Analyst

Regarding the Service margins, actually, if you look at it year-over-year, they were up 0.2% and on a quarterly basis, they were slightly down quarter-over-quarter. And that can be impacted by what happens with some of our preventative winter maintenance programs and what the mix of the Services as well. Mircea Dobre - Robert W. Baird & Co. Incorporated, Research Division: Okay. Well, then, sticking with the topic, looking at your guidance, as I see it, the guidance implies incremental net margins. So when I'm looking at your net income guidance, that would be meaningfully below current levels when we're looking at where you're guiding the top line. Yet, I look at the equipment margin guidance, that seems to be pretty much in line with what you've done in 2012. And we're talking about rental utilization improving, which should provide you with high incremental margins on those additional revenues. The only thing that I can deduce is that Parts and Service incremental margins should be much lower in the fiscal '14, and I'm wondering why is that the case. Do you see the mix issues that you've had in the back half of the current fiscal year continuing or how should we think about that?

Mark P. Kalvoda

Analyst

Yes. Mig, Mark here again. So when you're talking -- I think you're talking about our pretax net margin. Mircea Dobre - Robert W. Baird & Co. Incorporated, Research Division: Correct.

Mark P. Kalvoda

Analyst

And if you could take the -- yes, the midpoint of the guidance, it's coming down just a hair. It's going down from about 3.2% down to 3.1%. And yes, what we're having is -- I mean, what we're kind of putting into the guidance is with Ag same-store sales in that 2.5% range, kind of the midpoint of that 0% to 5%, you're not -- we're not getting a lot of growth on that Parts, Service and Equipment and there is some operating expense increase happening there. But for the most part, it's staying. What we're really modeling is about a flat pretax net margin business for next year. Mircea Dobre - Robert W. Baird & Co. Incorporated, Research Division: Well, I understand that. And I find that, frankly, to be a little bit surprising, considering the amount of top line growth that you're guiding to.

Mark P. Kalvoda

Analyst

Well, a lot of that top line growth that we're guiding to is annualization of like last year acquisitions and there's obviously some new year acquisitions in that guidance, and that comes with operating expenses with it as well. They generally perform right away at the level of our average stores -- our average Titan stores. And we talked about some of these metro area stores that we picked up last year, even early this year, that wouldn't be performing at the level of our average Titan store out there.

Operator

Operator

The next question will come from the line of Brent Rystrom from Feltl.

Brent R. Rystrom - Feltl and Company, Inc., Research Division

Analyst

Just a couple of quick thoughts. So from a simplistic perspective, Mark, if you see the CE business getting back to a slight profit, that implies about a $5 million pretax swing or about a $0.14 EPS swing, which is basically your midpoint. What's going on in the Ag business that is making that, in your minds, on a base case, flat?

David Joseph Meyer

Analyst

Well, right now, I think you looked out there right now that the drought map that we provided in a slide, Brent. So from the first half out there, there is a tendency, I think, for a lot of our customers, a little bit of wait-and-see attitude, the potential volatility of the commodity. So a lot of this is really going to be driven by weather, potential yields and what that does to commodities. So I can say there is an overall, I think, a wait-and-see type attitude out there, so -- and that settlement out there could have some negative pressure on those margins out there. So I think the -- basically, the balance sheets of our customers are good. I think the basic health of this industry is good out there right now, but we're coming through some kind of a really interesting situation with the weather phenomena.

Brent R. Rystrom - Feltl and Company, Inc., Research Division

Analyst

And from a simplistic perspective, does that imply then that inventories might build again in the first quarter, given that you're now more cautious in the first half?

David Joseph Meyer

Analyst

Well, we typically build inventories, and there is some tightness in certain models out there right now, even today. So yes, we typically build those inventories, and I'm looking for [indiscernible].

Brent R. Rystrom - Feltl and Company, Inc., Research Division

Analyst

But what I'm asking is, is it more than you would have expected previously?

David Joseph Meyer

Analyst

No, I don't think so. I think we're -- we've got some ongoing inventory initiatives out there, I think, and this -- like we talked about 3x turns, some things like that. So I think inventories are very much under control and doing on a very planned basis, looking at that 0% to 5% on the Ag side.

Brent R. Rystrom - Feltl and Company, Inc., Research Division

Analyst

All right. And then my final question would be on late planting. I was just up North Dakota, Bismarck back to Fargo sort of thing through South Dakota, through Minnesota and Wisconsin, it looks like there's going to be a lot of late planting. When you look at North Dakota specifically, all the net increase in acres this year in the United States is technically coming to North Dakota. If there is a shift where we're not able to get corn as aggressively in North Dakota as we think, is there in your mind an operational impact that would have on you if that was forced to shift heavier to beans or some other crop?

David Joseph Meyer

Analyst

Yes. I don't think so. Brent, I think where you're seeing is I think there's been a lot of discussions too. Some of these increased corn acres are going into some more marginal lands out there, whether it be in the Southeast or -- in reference to North Dakota out there. So with that, I think if -- like if it's switched over to soybeans, I don't see a problem with that. You also have this insurance component out there in addition to that. So I don't see it -- from a standpoint of our business, I don't think that's really going to affect whether they grow wheat beans or soybeans necessarily like that. So I think they're ramping up...

Brent R. Rystrom - Feltl and Company, Inc., Research Division

Analyst

So you're saying that everybody's been -- technically, they could opt to go preventive plantings. If they were corn acres -- it doesn't make corn acres from insurance. But theoretically...

David Joseph Meyer

Analyst

Correct, there's...

Brent R. Rystrom - Feltl and Company, Inc., Research Division

Analyst

Did that hurt you, because then you wouldn't have all the service because the equipment wouldn't be working?

David Joseph Meyer

Analyst

No, and I think if you look on our key -- if you really -- on our -- look on the key areas where Titan's markets are, in North Dakota where we are -- we've got a history of raising corns, soybeans and a lot of row crop in our markets. And if you really look at where these additional corn acres are going in to, we're typically in the 1/3 -- the eastern 1/3 of the state, in the southern -- southeastern part of the state where, historically, there's been a lot of row crops, corn and soybeans planted. A lot of these increased acres are going up into the northern part of the state or northwestern part of the state where Titan -- we don't have ag dealerships. We have construction dealerships, we don't have ag dealerships in those markets.

Operator

Operator

We'll move next to Larry De Maria from William Blair. Lawrence T. De Maria - William Blair & Company L.L.C., Research Division: Just curious, used inventory was up even though the new came down, it looks like. Is that as a result of just the tax buying which increased the trade-ins and the used? And how do you think about pricing on the used side? And should the pricing be okay into the spring and should the used side come down?

Peter J. Christianson

Analyst

Yes, all right. This is Peter. And our used is in line with the sales cycle. What we did is we converted -- you can see on that inventory graph where we really reduced our new materially. From our third quarter to our fourth quarter, we exceeded that target that we had talked about on our last call. And most of that new sale results in used trade-ins and our used inventory historically always goes up, coming in of our fourth quarter results. And the used inventory level didn't go up anywhere near how much the new went down. So it's in line with our sales cycle, and we've taken that into consideration. What we see as inventory values, they've been pretty stable now. But that's all part of our modeling when we talk about our equipment margins. Lawrence T. De Maria - William Blair & Company L.L.C., Research Division: Okay. So used values, you're saying, are stable? Are they set to improve into the spring? Or now, given the drought cautiousness, potential for drought or adverse weather anyway, do you guys expect the used equipment to soften up, because I think that was obviously a factor in some of the weakness late last year?

Peter J. Christianson

Analyst

Well, the thing is, right now, it's -- like David talked about a little bit of a wait-and-see attitude where we've got our equipment -- our used equipment on hand and we'll see how the weather goes as we go forward and how it affects all the different production areas in the United States. So what the impact does that have on the total crop production? But with what we see right now, we feel good about our used. Lawrence T. De Maria - William Blair & Company L.L.C., Research Division: Okay, good, and then second question. I think as recently as comps in January, you reaffirmed your longer-term targets of 20% to 25% EPS growth, years in the row. Those are set to not get hit unless something changes this year. How do we think about those targets? Are they still relevant? Is it fundamentally a different story now or we have to wait for construction to mature? Can you just give us some color and some confidence in the longer term?

Peter J. Christianson

Analyst

Well, I think when we switched gears and we start talking about the longer term, it would be fair to start looking at a longer-term horizon. You could look at what we've done since we've been a public company, and I think we've delivered results that have been exceeding what we talked about on long-term objectives. Short term, we can have things that happen with -- as with any business where we hit challenges along the way as we strive to grow our business. But we feel like we've delivered the results and we feel confident that, long term, we can live with those objectives that we've been putting up. Lawrence T. De Maria - William Blair & Company L.L.C., Research Division: And then when will you start to get back towards those longer-term goals in your view? Is it a 2015 event or sooner if things happen -- go the right way, because I think...

Peter J. Christianson

Analyst

Well, I guess there's -- yes, I guess there's 2 ways to look at that. First of all, it's much easier to talk about what our track record has been and demonstrate how we have executed. And we give our outlook for our company on an annual basis, and we really don't comment in particular on periods ahead of that. Other than that, when we look at our business -- when we look at the run rate we have for our acquisition growth and what we've been able to do organically that we feel like long term, we can hit those objectives that we've discussed with you.

Operator

Operator

Steve Dyer from Craig-Hallum has your next question.

Steven L. Dyer - Craig-Hallum Capital Group LLC, Research Division

Analyst

Most of mine have been answered. Just one, Dave, you touched on the insurance issue. Is there a deadline at which seed must be in the ground to qualify for crop insurance?

David Joseph Meyer

Analyst

Yes, there are deadlines on it, Steve, and there's multiple components of that insurance there, so -- but I think most of our growers are -- that's going to be a safety net for them this year.

Steven L. Dyer - Craig-Hallum Capital Group LLC, Research Division

Analyst

What's going to be the safety net?

David Joseph Meyer

Analyst

The insurance program.

Steven L. Dyer - Craig-Hallum Capital Group LLC, Research Division

Analyst

But are the -- is part of it or all of it at risk? If they can't get, I think, corn, I think May 25th is my understanding. If the seed's not in the ground, you don't qualify for part or some of that, is that right?

David Joseph Meyer

Analyst

I don't have the exact specifics of the farm program. But there's some preventive plant -- there are different -- like I said, there are different components of the farm program.

Steven L. Dyer - Craig-Hallum Capital Group LLC, Research Division

Analyst

But in general, the longer you go into the spring without planting, the higher the risk that you won't be able to take that insurance, is that right?

David Joseph Meyer

Analyst

No. I guess, I can't -- I don't know the exact details of that. I mean, that's -- you have to look in the USDA and some of the crop insurance stuff there, Steve. But what I've seen is that's a long ways out there, I mean, and there's a lot of -- our goal is -- a number of different crop options as they get through the time period out there. And the equipment they have today and their productivity and stuff, that once the weather straightens out and gets going, I mean, there's a lot of crops that get planted in a very short period of time, so -- but there is definitely a safety net involved with the farm program, whether it be preventive plant or crop insurance, so either way, they're going to be covered. We've got a lot of options out to them. But then again, I've been in this business for a lot of years and stuff, and that it isn't just very -- I don't know if I can ever see a year where they actually weren't able to farm. So I mean, there's -- I mean, I can say, with -- I give a lot of credit to our growers out there. They've got the management and the equipment and they've got the make-it-happen type attitude and that they just get the job done and so I'm confident. I mean, this is not -- if you look historically back that they snow in the ground in April and some rain, stuff like that, that is not unusual. We've just had a couple of really early springs that kind of spoiled everybody. But if you look over a period of years back, I mean, it's -- this is not unreasonable. And in fact, I think a lot of farmers look at -- they get start planting corn towards the end of April, or 25th of April is kind of -- in North Dakota, I mean, it's kind of an optimal yield date. But we've seen some also good corn crops. The corns got planted first week of May, stuff like that, too. So seed variety, the technology out there that the size of the equipment brought, you get a lot done in a heck of a hurry.

Operator

Operator

We'll hear next from Neil Frohnapple from Northcoast Research.

Neil Frohnapple - Northcoast Research

Analyst

Just a couple of quick follow-ups on the Rental business. So the rental utilization guidance this year of 34% to 36%, where did this -- where does rental utilization longer term really need to get to, to ramp up profitability? I mean, if we look at one of your larger competitors in the rental business, their dollar utilization was low 40% in the fourth quarter. So just trying to understand -- to get to your 5% to 6% pretax construction equipment margin target longer term, do we need to see utilization move from, call it, 35% this year to high 30s, low 40s? I mean, how should we think about that?

Peter J. Christianson

Analyst

Well, without mentioning names, there are other people that are in the rental business that have rental fleets that have the same mix that we do. This whole utilization area, it's based on your fleet mix. And it's -- as you get into lighter, smaller rental pieces that, as an example, for consumer use, they get a much higher utilization than you do as you go up to larger pieces of equipment, as an example, a large crane. So it's all about your fleet mix. That's got a big thing to do with it. And with where we are positioning our fleet and where we target our customer base, we're looking at a 35% utilization because we're going to have a fleet that does have a focus pointing towards dirt moving -- in the dirt business on the heavier side of the fleet mix. And at a 35% utilization, you can create a 50% gross margin business, so this would be a strong contributor to helping us to get to our goal on our operating margins, so this is -- long term, in that range, we're not too far off now.

Neil Frohnapple - Northcoast Research

Analyst

Okay. So the 35% is running on all cylinders on -- and yes, there can maybe be some improvements, but we shouldn't see that, given your guidance mix to pop into the 40% range or anything like that?

Peter J. Christianson

Analyst

No, we're not looking at that anytime soon. We feel like, if you -- like you said, if we get in the 35% utilization range, that kind of -- with our mix, that kind of go to where we're going to be at.

Neil Frohnapple - Northcoast Research

Analyst

Okay. And the 2 construction dealerships you just acquired, do you plan on investing on the Rental business at these locations, or as you guys have done at the other acquired CE dealerships recently?

David Joseph Meyer

Analyst

Yes, correct, and that's one of our main drivers. If you look at the size of the rental market in the Denver market, which was the recent acquisition, the Phoenix market, the Albuquerque market, huge rental markets there, and that was one of our main drivers of going into those markets. Not only it's a big rental business, but the acquisition economics, I think that just long term, really a lot of potential on those, especially in the Rental business.

Neil Frohnapple - Northcoast Research

Analyst

Okay. And then just final one for me. Can you speak directionally to your net CapEx plans for the Rental business in FY '14? I mean, should that be a source of cash then for you guys in this business this year?

Peter J. Christianson

Analyst

Well, we're going to continue to expand our rental fleet. And with the visibility we have now, it could be a $40 million investment in the fleet, but we're going to assess that as we go and we get better visibility into a lot of these new larger markets like what David talked about. And so we'll be looking at that throughout the year.

Operator

Operator

We'll move next to Tom Varesh from M Partners.

Tom O. Varesh - M Partners Inc., Research Division

Analyst

My question is on inventory and the comment that we should expect are -- typically, we've seen inventory increase in the first half of the year to support sales in the second half. But given the level of inventory that you do have then, I think the focus remains on reducing the net overall level of inventory. Why are you taking on new equipment in the first half of the year?

Peter J. Christianson

Analyst

Well, if you look at our company on a historical basis and you would run the seasonality graph line each year, that is what happens in the business, is you need to get your new sales supported by your inventory levels, so that you can deliver those new machines in the back half of the year. David talked about the fact that they did increase -- United States increased the Section 179 depreciation to $500,000 and also the bonus depreciation. All of that is predicated by us having -- physically having the unit on hand. So it has always been seasonally that what we've done is we've grown that inventory in the front half of the year to support the back half. Now with that said, we're still focusing on our inventory management strategy and we still want to drive that inventory turn and increase that and move towards that 3x turn. So that's something that we'll keep on working on, but we felt that -- everyone needs to remember that throughout the year, there is some seasonality on those levels.

Operator

Operator

And we have time for one last question, and your final question will come from Brian Sponheimer from Gabelli & Company. Brian Sponheimer - Gabelli & Company, Inc.: I want to stay on the inventory management side and specifically, your last comment about bonus depreciation and the need to have inventory on hand. What's your sense the longer term -- that there's some demand that's just being artificially propped up by some of these incentives? And as you're looking longer term, is that a potential headwind for you on the growth side?

David Joseph Meyer

Analyst

No. We think there's long-term demand out there. If you look at the technology out there in the equipment, the increased productivity, the increased yield, the lighter planters, some of the spacings in row crops, I mean, there's just this continual demand for the equipment. Also, what we're seeing here are just phenomenal. Fuel economy savings right now with these new Tier 4 engines that are out there right now, which I think is going to drive purchases in here to get the more fuel-efficient engines. Now, I just recently read some stuff. You're starting to see some of these drones being used in the farming communities. There's just a lot of technology stuff out there and all that you're seeing come out in the marketplace. So there's always going to be some incentives out there. There's always going to be this return on investment they get for better yields, better productivity. And that's continually driven our business out there, and there's a lot of really interesting products out there in the horizon, I think, that are going to keep that ongoing demand out there. Brian Sponheimer - Gabelli & Company, Inc.: All right. And if I could just ask one more. What's your sense about the pricing environment with some of your competition and their own inventory? How long do you think that this inventory bubble is going to need to work itself through the system?

David Joseph Meyer

Analyst

Are you talking about Ag or Construction now? Brian Sponheimer - Gabelli & Company, Inc.: Ag, on the Ag side.

David Joseph Meyer

Analyst

Well, on the Ag side, I think it's a competitive environment out there, but I don't see a lot of strange things happen out there as far as price is concerned. I think everybody's out there, I think they're making money out there, but everybody is fighting for market share, so -- but I don't see anything being driven by manufacturers or anything that's anything out of the ordinary right now. And in fact, they almost sense that there's just a little bit of stability starting to take place in the pricing out there.

Operator

Operator

That does conclude our question-and-answer session. Mr. Meyer, I'd like to turn the conference back over to you for any additional or closing remarks.

David Joseph Meyer

Analyst

Okay. Thank you, everyone, for your interest in Titan and we look forward to updating you on our progress on our next call. We will also be attending a number of investor events and look forward to seeing you during the next few months. Have a good day.

Operator

Operator

That does conclude today's teleconference. We thank you all for your participation.