Bo Larsen
Analyst · Craig-Hallum Capital Group
Thanks, Bryan, and good morning, everyone. Starting with our consolidated results for the FY '27 second quarter. Total revenue was $496.4 million compared to $546.4 million in the prior year period, reflecting a 6.2% decrease in same-store sales. Despite the sales headwinds in the second quarter, gross profit was essentially flat at $92.4 million, resulting in gross profit margin expansion of 150 basis points to 18.6%. This year-over-year improvement primarily reflects stronger equipment margins, which improved 190 basis points year-over-year to 8.5%, driven by the continued improvement in inventory health alongside a higher mix of parts and service revenue in our consolidated totals. Our operating expenses of $94.1 million were up modestly year-over-year. This is largely a function of higher variable expenses tied to our sales initiatives, including those in support of clearing aged inventory. However, the key message is that our head count and discretionary spending continue to be down year-over-year as a result of disciplined expense management, which speaks to our efforts to control what we can and position ourselves for the other side of this cycle. Floorplan and other interest expense decreased 30% to $8.1 million from last year's $11.5 million, reflecting the significant reduction in interest-bearing inventory levels over the past year. In the second quarter of FY '27, net loss was $9.2 million or $0.40 per share. This compared to a net loss of $6 million or $0.26 per share in the prior year period, which included a $2.2 million tax benefit that didn't repeat this year, given the tax valuation allowance that we put on in Q4 of last year. Absent last year's tax benefit, net loss was very similar year-over-year despite the lower sales volume. Adjusted EBITDA was $4.6 million compared to $5.6 million last year. Now turning to a brief overview of our segment results for the second quarter. Domestic Ag segment sales of $310.2 million reflected a same-store sales decrease of 8.4%, driven by softer equipment demand compared to the prior year. Equipment revenue in this segment came in modestly ahead of our expectations for the quarter and was down 13.5%, while parts and service revenues tracked closely to our expectations. Segment pretax loss improved by $9 million to $3.3 million versus the prior year period, reflecting the actions we have taken to accelerate inventory reductions and the resulting improvement in equipment margins that we have achieved. In our Construction segment, same-store sales increased by 9.2% to $78.6 million, primarily due to higher equipment sales. Equipment margins remained strong relative to the prior year, reflecting healthier inventory and improved industry conditions across our Construction footprint. Pretax income improved to $0.4 million compared to a pretax loss of $1.2 million in the second quarter of the prior year. In our Europe segment, sales declined to $66.1 million for the quarter, which included a $1.1 million net benefit related to foreign currency fluctuations. On a constant currency basis, revenue decreased approximately 34%. As we noted last quarter, the wind-down of our German operations is a meaningful portion of the year-over-year decline in this segment, and will continue to be through the balance of the year. Germany contributed approximately $11 million or about 1/3 of the year-over-year revenue decline in the second quarter, with the balance attributed to lower equipment demand in the current year period against a strong prior year comp, which benefited from the European Union's stimulus programs in Romania. Pretax loss for the segment was $1.3 million compared to a pretax income of $5.1 million in the second quarter of last year. In our Australian segment, sales increased 36% to $41.4 million and included a $3.9 million net benefit related to foreign currency fluctuations. On a constant currency basis, revenue increased $6.9 million or 22.5%, with the current period benefiting from contributions from our addition of the New Holland brand to 6 of our rooftops in the fall of last year. Pretax loss for the segment was $3.4 million compared to a pretax loss of $2.1 million in the second quarter of last year. Now on to our balance sheet and inventory position. We had cash of approximately $30 million and an adjusted debt to tangible net worth ratio of 1.6x as of July 31, 2026, which is well below our bank covenant of 3.5x. Total inventory at quarter end was $931.5 million, a modest increase of $28 million compared to year-end. This increase was very much in line with our expectations and reflects the normal seasonal cadence of inventory flows. As Bryan noted, our focus in FY '27 remains on reducing aged inventory, mix optimization and increasing inventory turns, all of which we continue to expect to see improvement throughout the rest of the year. Turning to our FY '27 modeling assumptions. We are reaffirming our overall profitability outlook for the year, while updating a number of our segment revenue assumptions to reflect our year-to-date performance and our current expectations for the balance of the year. We continue to expect our Domestic Agriculture segment to be down in the range of 15% to 20%, though at this point, we'd expect it to be closer to the 15% range. In Construction, we are raising our outlook for growth in the range of up 5% to 10%, reflecting the momentum we're seeing from infrastructure, data center and otherwise generally improved demand in our footprint. In Europe, we are revising our outlook to a decrease of 30% to 40% and widening the range to reflect the uncertainty we're seeing in the region. A meaningful portion of that decline, or about $44 million, continues to be driven by the wind down of our German operations, with the balance reflecting broader softness across the rest of the region. In Australia, we are raising our outlook for growth to be in the range of about 15% to 20%, and we expect full year results to be closer to the high end of the range around that 20% growth mark. Reported results for Australia are benefiting from favorable foreign currency translation, and that alone is expected to provide 8% growth for the full year. From a margin perspective, we expect consolidated full year equipment margin to be approximately 8.3%, which compares to 7.3% in FY '26. I'd note that through the first half of the year, we are at 8.2%, which speaks to the impact of our inventory initiatives and our confidence in delivering against this full year expectation across the balance of the year. Full year operating expenses will decrease year-over-year despite our continued investment in our customer care strategy, which is supporting stability in our parts and service businesses. We expect operating expenses to be approximately 17.5% to 18% of sales. On floorplan interest expense, given the great progress on the health of our inventory, we now expect to achieve a year-over-year decline of approximately 30% for the full fiscal year. Bringing it all together, we are reaffirming our full year adjusted EBITDA range of $17 million to $29 million, and our adjusted diluted loss per share range of $1.25 to $1.75. In summary, our second quarter results reflect the continued progress we're making on inventory health and our operational priorities as we progress through the bottom of this cycle. We remain focused on executing the initiatives within our control to position us well when industry conditions inflect. This concludes our prepared comments. Operator, we are now ready for the question-and-answer session of our call.