Mastercraft Boat Holdings Inc (MCFT) 2025 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Q2 2025 MasterCraft Boat Holdings, Inc., earnings conference call. (Operator Instructions)

Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded.

I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Tim Oxley, Chief Financial Officer. Please go ahead.

Thank you, operator, and welcome, everyone. Thank you for joining us today as we discuss MasterCraft's fiscal second-quarter performance for 2025. As a reminder, today's call is being webcast live and will also be archived on our website for future listening.

With me on this morning's call is Brad Nelson, Chief Executive Officer. We will begin with an overview of our operational performance from the second quarter. I will then discuss our financial performance. Brad will then provide some closing remarks before we open the call for questions.

Before we begin, we'd like to remind participants that the information contained in this call is current only as of today, February 6, 2025. The company assumes no obligation to update any statements, including forward-looking statements. Statements that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements and subject to Safe Harbor disclaimer in today's press release.

Additionally, on this conference call, we will discuss non-GAAP measures that include or exclude items not indicative of our ongoing operations. For each non-GAAP measure, we also provide the most correctly comparable GAAP measure in today's press release, which includes a reconciliation of these non-GAAP measures to our GAAP results.

There's also a slide deck summarizing our financial results in the Investors section of our website. As a reminder, unless otherwise noted, the following commentary is made on a continuing operations basis. With that, I'll turn the call over to Brad.

Thank you, Tim, and good morning, everyone. MasterCraft delivered fiscal second-quarter results that exceeded expectations. Our robust de-stocking efforts over the past 24 months have given our dealers the confidence to place new orders ahead of boat show season.

Additionally, our portfolio of consumer-centric brands, highly variable cost structure, and free cash flow generation provides us with the ability to continue investing in the business to drive long-term growth. Our flexible operating model and strategic production planning allows us to mitigate near-term risk and deliver strong fiscal 2025 results as we position the business for sustained growth in the periods ahead.

Our purposeful lower production through the first half of our fiscal year puts us well ahead of schedule in reducing field inventories. Assuming current retail trends continue through the summer sailing season, de-stocking of field inventories should largely be in the rear-view mirror. We are narrowing our full-year guidance range as a result of our second-quarter performance and the promising launch of the MasterCraft XStar product line. We will discuss this in greater detail later on.

Looking at the overall retail environment, mixed economic conditions, and geopolitical uncertainty amplified typical second-quarter seasonality. Despite softer retail, our aggressive inventory management and lower production levels led to a reduction of dealer inventories by more than 30% year over year.

As we gear up for the summer sailing season, despite retail uncertainty, there is still cautious optimism throughout our MasterCraft dealer network. Before discussing recent brand developments, I wanted to briefly address the topic of tariffs.

At this point, we're expecting cost implications for fiscal 2025 to be modest. While the vast majority of our materials are currently sourced from US suppliers, ongoing trade and tariff variability could affect certain components. We have strong supplier relationships and an experienced supply chain team proactively working to mitigate risk. We will continue to monitor and act on the implications of trade dynamics on the broader economy and potential impact on retail customer sentiment.

Now turning to our brands. For our MasterCraft segment, our team is actively supporting our dealer partners at the various boat shows worldwide. MasterCraft has performed particularly well at the Salt Lake City; Minneapolis; and Düsseldorf, Germany shows.

As a reminder, we recently launched our new flagship XStar lineup. Initial consumer reaction has been overwhelmingly positive and has generated a noticeable buzz throughout our network and the industry. The product is in high demand from our dealers and retail customers alike.

We are experiencing a strong halo effect on the MasterCraft brand since the launch, resulting in ramped up interest across our product portfolio. We are optimistic that this positive momentum will carry into remaining boat shows and into the summer.

Now let me discuss more specifics related to the new XStar. Production commenced in our second quarter, with the first wholesale shipments in our third quarter. As early rate production steadily ramps, the XStar's premium price point will drive significant earnings and free cash flow in our second half, particularly in the fourth quarter.

The ultra-premium XStar lineup consists of a redesigned 23-foot model and a brand-new 25-foot offering. This lineup sets a new benchmark in wake and wave performance through its all-new haul and Balise design. Utilizing the industry-leading SurfStar system, the XStar creates the most powerful and versatile waves with automated control.

All XStars come standard with premium features, including supercharged 6.2-liter engine, a revolutionary transom audio system, an exclusive Z100 tower, a stern thruster, and an innovative dash interface. Our team's renewed focus on innovation, performance, and luxury is showcased throughout this lineup. We hope that you are able to stop by our booth at an upcoming boat show.

Turning to our pontoon segment. For some time now, the pontoon industry has experienced softening retail, as payment buyers have been deterred by higher interest rates and other macroeconomic pressures. This softening in retail, combined with the more pronounced seasonality for these types of products, has contributed to elevated aged inventory levels across the pontoon industry and a challenging retail environment.

Reducing field inventories has been a key focus for our Crest brand. Fiscal year to date, we have successfully reduced pipeline levels at Crest through the off-peak season. As we near the all-important summer sailing season, our top priority continues to be selling through aged inventory and pipeline management.

Early boat show results for our Crest brand have been mixed. We've been encouraged by Crest performance at the all-important Minneapolis and Chicago boat shows. For our Balise brand, the early consumer response to our Horizon and Helix models have been promising, as we ramp up brand visibility and continue adding strong dealers in targeted locations.

Lastly, as we announced in December, the sale of our Merritt Island facility and related plant assets closed as expected. The net cash proceeds of over $26 million bolsters our balance sheet and adds to our financial flexibility and ability to invest in our key long-term growth initiatives. I will now turn the call over to Tim, who will provide additional commentary on the quarter and a detailed discussion of our financial results. Tim?

Thanks, Brad. As we turn to our fiscal-second quarter results, keep in mind that our financial results reflect historically low production volumes. Although retail uncertainty persists, we are optimistic that we are near the bottom of this prolonged market downcycle.

Focusing on the top line, net sales for the quarter were $63.4 million, a decrease of $26.4 million or 29% from the prior-year period. This decrease was primarily due to the planned lower volume and unfavorable model mix.

For the quarter, gross margin was 17.2%, compared to the prior-year period of 23.3%. The decrease was primarily attributed to lower cost absorption from the production decrease. Operating expenses were $10.7 million for the quarter, compared to $10.2 million in the prior-year period. Operating expenses increased primarily due to higher share-based compensation.

On the bottom line, adjusted net income for the quarter was $1.7 million or $0.10 per diluted share. This compares to adjusted net income of $9.5 million or $0.55 per diluted share for the prior-year period, calculated using a tax rate of 20% for both periods.

Adjusted EBITDA was $3.5 million for the quarter, compared to $12.9 million in the prior-year period. Adjusted EBITDA margin was 5.6%, compared to 14.4% in the second quarter of fiscal 2024. Our balance sheet positions us well as we ended the quarter with nearly $63 million in cash and short-term investments.

We have no debt as we paid off our evolving credit facility balance early in the quarter, resulting in $100 million of revolver availability at the end of Q2. Despite low cycle volumes, we generated nearly $11 million of free cash flow during the quarter. Our ample liquidity and financial strength enables us to fund key growth initiatives and return capital to shareholders.

During the quarter, we spent nearly $750,000 to repurchase approximately 40,000 shares of our common stock. We repurchased shares at a slower pace as planned. Since initiating our share repurchase program in June of 2021, we have allocated nearly $69 million to repurchase more than 2.8 million shares.

Our robust balance sheet and strong free cash flow generation reinforces our financial stability through the business cycle. We remain committed to grow through innovation, product and brand development, and highly selective inorganic opportunities, given the currently suppressed marine environment.

As Brad alluded to earlier, we're narrowing our full-year guidance range. For fiscal 2025, consolidated net sales are now expected to be between $275 million and $295 million, with adjusted EBITDA between $19 million and $24 million, and adjusted earnings per share between $0.64 and $0.86. We continue to expect capital expenditures to be approximately $12 million for the year.

For the third-quarter fiscal 2025, consolidated net sales are expected to be approximately $75 million, with adjusted EBITDA of approximately $5 million and adjusted earnings per share of approximately $0.17. As a reminder, our second half is expected to have a favorable model mix, which includes the ramp-up of XStar production. I'll now turn the call back to Brad for his closing remarks.

Thank you, Tim. Our business executed well during our fiscal second quarter by delivering better-than- expected results, despite ongoing macroeconomic uncertainty and a highly competitive retail environment. Improving dealer health as we approach the summer sailing season, combined with lower short-term rates and prudent production levels, positions our business well for sustained long-term success.

Our first-half performance provides a solid foundation for the back half of fiscal 2025 and into 2026. With a strong balance sheet and robust cash flow generation, we maintain the financial flexibility to pursue our key growth initiatives. As we move beyond inventory rebalancing, we are highly focused on positioning the business to capitalize on the upcoming market recovery.

Operator, you may now open the line for questions.

(Operator Instructions) Joe Altobello, Raymond James.

Thank you. Hey, guys. Good morning. First question, I want to talk about channel inventory. You mentioned you made further progress. So I was hoping you could give us some numbers around that.

I think you said or have said previously that you're targeting roughly 600 to 1,000 boats coming out of the channel this year. And I think Q1, you did 500. So maybe update us on where we are through Q2 and what you expect to do by the end of the year?

We had some very modest channel increase in Q2, which is the typical cadence for us. The increase going from Q1 to Q2 was the lowest increase we've had since we've been a public company. So we're making good progress on the inventory reduction that we called out earlier. So we still expect to end up in that range.

Okay, super. And then just to shift gears over to MasterCraft, it looks like the ASPs were down pretty significantly for that brand, for that business? Can you shed a little light on that for us?

Really, so it's [mix issue] that we alluded to earlier. And we'll be seeing the mix grow substantially in both Q3 and Q4 as we ramp up the XStar production. I think we had a mix going toward more of the NXTs and XTs as the dealers await for the promising XStar launch. And so now that's out, we'll see the ASPs going back up.

And Joe, you probably recall, for NXT and XT models, we adjusted pricing on some of those downward actually to address the affordability issue. We didn't do that across the board on the entire portfolio. That all starts to come back in balance here in the second half with the launch of our new ultra-premium stuff.

Got it. Okay. Thank you, guys.

Craig Kennison, Baird.

Hey, good morning. Thanks for taking my question, and kudos on the work to build a strong balance sheet in this market.

You mentioned buybacks, but also strategic growth initiatives. Is there any way to frame what fits into that strategic bucket? I mean, is it brand startups like you've done in the past? Could it be brand acquisitions, vertical integration? And I'm just -- based on conversations -- we have investors like, how do you compare the ROI of investments in acquisitions versus your own stock?

Yeah. Thanks for the question, Craig. In the short term, our focus is on executing within our brands and of course, increasing overall shareholder value while we do that. As we look at what to do with our cash, how to leverage the balance sheet, we're working in parallel, simplifying our business, focused innovation, product and brand development, and improving distribution.

Those are more execution related, while also returning capital to shareholders. We're going to continue to bolster and strengthen a fortress balance sheet. I mean, that's a capital allocation priority. We will continue to fully fund our strategic and operating initiative on just improving the business overall and returning cash to shareholders. That's how we balance those things.

Of course, we track returns on all of our investments and return on investment capital internally. And we're pleased with our progress in doing that. But we also maintain flexibility. I mean, we all know we're in a pretty variable market right now. So having some padding there is helpful. But that flexibility will help us really as we position for the recovery that's bound to happen soon.

Thanks, Brad. And maybe just to follow up, could you frame the opportunity you see in distribution?

Yeah, I mean, it really starts, of course, with geographic coverage. There's a big world out there, and it goes beyond the United States. Domestically, in the United States, boating markets are pretty highly concentrated in certain areas, and it's highly competitive out there in distribution.

We have great dealer partners. But we also have geographic pockets of opportunity for growth with expanding and partnering with our dealers for more presence, more stores, more rooftops, and positioning, especially as we fill out white space in our portfolio. That product, thrust together with distribution improvements, happen in parallel. And that's where we get the energy.

That lines up well to do that in the down part of the cycle. Because when the market and retail starts to pop, then it's easier for dealers to get a return on that investment as well. So it's really about geographic coverage and just hitting consumers in the path, in the areas of growth.

And then with affordability, there's certain demographic profiles and certain geographies that are more important than others. So as the world continues to turn there, we need to be constantly vibrant in changing and enhancing, improving our distribution coverage.

Thanks, Brad.

Noah Zatzkin, KeyBanc Capital Markets.

Hi. Thanks for taking my question. Just in general, I guess, have you guys mentioned kind of what industry retail assumptions are baked into the guide? And then, as it relates to kind of the early boat shows, just anything to call out in terms of any changes you've noticed in maybe consumer sentiment or appetite? Any green shoots you could point to would be helpful. Thanks.

So we guided at the beginning of the year, we thought retail was going to be down between 5% and 10%. And we still think that is the case, and we're within that range on a year-to-date basis.

As far as boat shows, it was a very much a pleasant surprise to see how much demand there is for the XStar. It's an expensive boat, the ultra premium. We had outstanding reception on that boat in Europe. And so in spite of economies being down in Europe and so forth, there are still wealthy people that like their toys. And we're taking full advantage of that worldwide.

Just to build on that, with boat show and consumer sentiment, even though we're sort of at or near the bottom of the cycle and also off-peak season, the seasonality, double negative, there is increasing, we call it, just cautious optimism amongst what we're hearing from dealers about the potential for retail. Here's the season starts to turn on.

In particular, we had strong shows in Salt Lake City. Tim mentioned Düsseldorf and Minneapolis. There's a nice halo effect with new product, of course. So this XStar product lineup is drawing a lot of eyeballs, a lot of attention and solid energy. We've taken a lot of deposits on that boat. We're back half loaded in our production planning there, but we're excited about that.

And then, on the pontoon side, although the shows have been more mixed there, as those buyers are typically a credit buyer and interest rates still remain elevated, this is the first time in this boat show season to get our new Balise product line, which is also premium offering, in front of customers, and in some cases, some dealers, to see the product.

And product feedback on that product is also very favorable. And we knew with Balise launching in a low part of the market that it's going to take some time. But we're encouraged with the Balise product as well. And we're looking forward to the Miami show next week.

Thank you.

(Operator Instructions) Griffin Bryan, D.A. Davidson.

Hi, good morning. So it seems like you guys are doing fairly well with de-stocking overall. Can you just speak to what you're seeing from competitors and the categories you operate in and if overall dealer inventories are also seeing this level of de-stocking?

We think -- I mean, let's talk about the boat shows first. You get some sense of how competitors are doing. We think we've had a more successful boat show season than our competitors. I'm sure that varies from show to show. But overall, we're very pleased with how we've -- how competitive we've been.

It continues to be an environment that has a fair amount of discounting. So we've been judicious with those retail rebates to drive sales. But it's a -- and on the pontoon side, it's a tough market out there. And so we do a hand-to-hand combat every show and try to make sure that we don't lose a deal within reason.

Got you. And we've heard from dealers that clients [continue] to be the biggest weight on consumers' shoulders who are kind of on the fence of purchasing a unit. Is there a certain rate hurdle that you think would help get retail back to positive or at least kind of influence more purchasing?

It's pure speculation on my part, but I think it's probably got to go down another 50 to 100 basis points. Keep in mind, these consumer rates are largely tied to the long-term interest rates as opposed to the short term. Short term gets all the publicity, affects are carrying costs and the dealers' carrying costs. But the long-term rates are, I think, more closely aligned with the retail lending environment.

Some of this can be, of course, psychological, too, just for dealer and consumer sentiment. Any improvement is positive. On the MasterCraft side, I mean, roughly half of our buyers are cash buyers, and so MasterCraft is less impacted. It has some impact, of course, but less impacted by interest rates; and the pontoon space, much more impacted. So we would expect to see more positive input there as interest rates ease.

Got it. Thanks, guys.

I'm showing no further questions. This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.