McGrath RentCorp (NASDAQ:MGRC) Q1 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

McGrath RentCorp (NASDAQ:MGRC) Q1 2026 Earnings Call Transcript April 29, 2026

McGrath RentCorp misses on earnings expectations. Reported EPS is $1.1 EPS, expectations were $1.13.

Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the McGrath RentCorp First Quarter 2026 Earnings Call. [Operator Instructions] This conference is being recorded today, Wednesday, April 29, 2026. Before we begin, note that the matters the company management will be discussing today that are not statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements relating to the company’s expectations, strategies, prospects, backlog or targets. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve significant risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to differ materially from those projected.

Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the company’s expectations are disclosed under the Risk Factors in the company’s Form 10-K and other SEC filings. Forward-looking statements are made only as of the date hereof, except as otherwise required by law, we assume no obligation to update any forward-looking statements. In addition to the press release issued today, the company also filed with the SEC the earnings release on Form 8-K and its Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2026. Speaking today will be Phil Hawkins, Chief Executive Officer; and Keith Pratt, Chief Financial Officer. I will now turn the call over to Mr. Hawkins. Go ahead, sir.

Philip Hawkins: Thank you, Stephanie. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us today from McGrath RentCorp’s First Quarter 2026 Earnings Call. I’m pleased to report on our performance over the past quarter and to provide an update on our outlook for this year. I will also address current economic conditions and the possible effects of the Middle East conflict on the business. First, our quarterly results. Total company revenues increased 2% and adjusted EBITDA decreased 1% compared to the prior year first quarter. This performance was driven by continued progress from our modular strategic growth initiatives and strength in TRS with too. We delivered rental revenue growth in each of our businesses despite some challenging market conditions.

Higher equipment preparation expenses and lower sales at Enviroplex were headwinds to profitability for the quarter. Yet we still managed to deliver adjusted EBITDA essentially flat with last year. At Mobile Modular, rental revenues grew 4%. Our commercial market segments were the primary drivers of our growth. These included government, manufacturing, health care and data center projects. Education demand levels remained steady. As we prepared existing units to meet demand, our operating expenses increased. These higher costs supported increased shipments in the first quarter and beyond. Architecture Billings Index, or ABI, and other macro indicators of construction-related demand remains subdued. Despite this, our quote and booking levels were higher than a year ago with our geographic expansion efforts and additional sales coverage contributing to these positive trends.

Our services expansion initiatives, Mobile Modular Plus and site-related services saw solid increases in the quarter, helping to offset lower utilization. Modular equipment sales were lower in the quarter, any fluctuations. Turning to our portable storage business. rental revenues increased slightly with steady demand, while higher costs compressed profitability for the quarter. At TRS, rental revenues continued their recent growth trajectory and were up 13%. Demand continued to be strong across the broad spectrum of our equipment, and we benefited from project supporting build-out of new data centers. Overall, I’m pleased with our start to the year. Turning to the broader macro environment. Recent developments in the Middle East had no material impact in the first quarter.

This could change as the year progresses and may increase uncertainty or result in customers delaying projects. Additionally, higher energy prices for an extended period may start to impact operating costs. As always, we remain vigilant and we’ll be ready to make adjustments as needed. So remains well positioned, improved first quarter rental revenues across all divisions despite some challenging market demand conditions. Our strong balance sheet gives us the flexibility to fund organic growth opportunities, support a steadily increasing dividend and retain capacity for strategic M&A and share repurchases. We continue to demonstrate this in the first quarter. Capital spending increased to fund organic growth in new modular geographic markets and we increased investment in TRS to support strong market demand.

We also worked on a small modular acquisition, which we closed in early April. In addition, we completed share repurchases during the quarter. I’m confident we have the right team and discipline in place to drive shareholder value in the years ahead. I would like to thank our team for your engagement in delivering these results. and our customers and shareholders for your trust in our company. With that, I will turn the call over to Keith, who will take you through the financial details of our quarter and our outlook for the full year.

Keith E. Pratt: Thank you, Phil, and good afternoon, everyone. As Phil highlighted, first quarter results demonstrated steady progress with rental revenue growth in each of our divisions. Looking at the overall corporate results for the first quarter. Total revenues increased 2% to $199 million, and adjusted EBITDA decreased 1% to $74 million. Reviewing Mobile Modular’s operating performance as compared to the first quarter of 2025, total revenues for Mobile Modular increased 2% to $134 million. and adjusted EBITDA decreased 1% to $47 million. The business saw a 4% higher rental revenues, driven by growth from our commercial customer base and 4% higher rental-related services revenues due to higher site-related services projects.

The growth in rental operations was partly offset by 7% lower sales revenues. Inventory center costs increased by $3.2 million as we prepared equipment to support higher shipment levels. This expense compressed rental margins to 56%, down from 60% a year ago. Sales revenues decreased $1.6 million to $20.9 million as a result of lower new and used sales projects during the quarter. Average fleet utilization was 70% compared to 74.6% a year ago, consistent with the challenging demand environment. First quarter monthly revenue per unit on rent increased 7% to $889. For new shipments over the last 12 months, the average monthly revenue per unit increased 1% to $1,208. There is still a positive pricing tailwind opportunity as our fleet churns. We continue to make progress with our modular services offerings.

Mobile Modular Plus revenues increased to $10.3 million from $8.6 million a year earlier, and site-related services increased to $5.3 million, up from $4.1 million. Turning to the review of portable storage in the first quarter. Total revenues for portable storage increased 3% to $22 million, and adjusted EBITDA was $7 million, a decrease of 17% compared to the prior year. Rental revenues for the quarter increased 1% to $16.3 million and rental margins were 80%, down from 84% a year earlier. Adjusted EBITDA was lower as a result of several cost and margin pressures in the quarter, inventory center costs increased as we prepared equipment to support higher shipment levels. Rental-related services margins for deliveries and pickups were pressured in a very competitive environment.

SG&A expense increased in part because we invested in sales coverage to support longer-term utilization improvement across the current branch network. Average utilization for the quarter was 58.6% compared to 60.2% a year ago. Turning now to the review of TRS-RenTelco. TRS had a strong quarter. with total revenues up 11% to $39 million and adjusted EBITDA up 16% to $21 million. Rental revenues increased 13% to $29 million as the industry continued to experience improved demand conditions and the business benefited from project supporting data center build-outs. Rental margins improved to 45% from 40% a year ago. Average utilization for the quarter was 66.1%, up from 61.6% a year ago, and was the highest first quarter level since 2021. Sales revenues increased 1% to $8 million and gross margins were 55% compared to 47% a year ago.

Lastly, on Enviroplex compared to a very strong first quarter in 2025, Enviroplex total sales revenue decreased 51% to $3.7 million, and adjusted EBITDA declined to a loss of $1.1 million from a profit of $0.4 million. The remainder of my comments will be on a total company basis. First quarter selling and administrative expenses increased $2.6 million to $53.5 million primarily due to higher salaries and benefit costs. Interest expense was $6.5 million, a decrease of $1.7 million as a result of lower average debt levels and lower interest rates during the quarter. The first quarter provision for income taxes was based on an effective tax rate of 26.7% compared to 24.6% a year earlier. Turning to our year-to-date cash flow highlights. Net cash provided by operating activities was $42 million.

compared to $54 million in the prior year. Rental equipment purchases were $45 million compared to $12 million in the prior year. as we increased investment in modular geographic expansion opportunities and to support higher demand at TRS. In addition to investments in new fleet, healthy cash generation allowed us to pay $12 million in shareholder dividends and to complete $12 million of share repurchases. At quarter end, we had net borrowings of $546 million, and the ratio of funded debt to the last 12 months actual adjusted EBITDA was $1.51 to $1 million. For the full year, our outlook remains unchanged, and we expect total revenue between $945 million and $995 million, adjusted EBITDA between $360 million and $378 million, and gross rental equipment capital expenditures between $180 million and $200 million.

We are encouraged by the progress made during the first quarter, and we are fully focused on solid execution for the remainder of 2026. That concludes our prepared remarks. Stephanie, you may now open the lines for questions.

Q&A Session

Operator: [Operator Instructions] We’ll take our first question from Manav Patnaik with Barclays.

John Ronan Kennedy: This is Ronan Kennedy on for Manav. Can I just ask some follow-ups to start on demand trends in end markets. I think you called out strength across government, manufacturing, health care, data centers, which of these are the largest contributors? And how are the trends in terms of the momentum in each? And then for the education end market, I think you had indicated demand is steady. Has that changed at all in something visibility?

Keith E. Pratt: Thanks, Ron. I appreciate that. I think those modular products customer segment areas that we called out, government, manufacturing, health care, data center, the majority of that work would fall into what you would call the mega project category. So I wouldn’t call out 1 of those buckets over another, other than that we’re seeing that large project demand in several of those verticals, a piece of that being data centers. On the education side of the business, we spend a lot of time internally drilling into our performance by market. And there’s a lot of headlines out there about decreasing student populations. I think the important thing to remember there is there’s still increasing demand for modernization work due to aging school infrastructure.

And so when we look at Q1 adjusting out the abnormal demand we saw last year related to the Southern California wildfires. Our first quarter education bookings were roughly flat year-over-year, but kind of that steady demand level with those kind of 2 offsetting macro factors contributing to that.

John Ronan Kennedy: Got it. And another on kind of macro commentary and potentially early signals. I think you indicated that the Middle East situation had no impact in Q1, but could increase uncertainty or delay projects. Have you seen any early signs of customer caution or changes in quoting, booking behavior since the quarter end? And then I think you also flagged a risk of higher energy prices impacting costs. where would that show up? Would that be in the equipment prep, delivery logistics or broader operating expenses?

Keith E. Pratt: Maybe I’ll just start by saying we’re actively monitor and manage these types of geopolitical events and the impact they have, both on our cost structure and our supply chain. We haven’t seen any material impact, as I mentioned, in the first quarter or here in the early months of April. I think the place that you’d probably see that occur first if this is extended, would be in the fuel cost area or fuel exposure and even there, the majority of those costs were able to pass through the customers and we manage those pricing increases with real time through our pricing optimization tools. We haven’t seen any further delays or customer questions at this point. I think it’s still too early to see that, and we’ll keep monitoring to understand that there’s any longer-term downward pressure on demand.

Philip Hawkins: I think Ron and the other thing to keep an eye on is just more broadly higher energy costs can be a driver for just broad-based inflation and ultimately, that cost and other things. It’s just way too early to get any read, if that’s going to be an issue and to what extent. And as Phil said, we’ll be vigilant. We’ll look to make adjustments if we need to. So very early days, but no impact at this point.

John Ronan Kennedy: Got it. And then on the bookings strength macro indicators going back to demand, I think ABI and macro indicators remain subdued, but internal booking activity is improving. Can you kind of talk about how that reconciles internal strength versus weaker indicators? And then I think looking levels were higher, yet utilization declined revenue growth remained modest. Can you reconcile those dynamics as well? And if we should anticipate change in conversion, timing from bookings to shipments to revenue, et cetera.

Philip Hawkins: Yes, I think I’ll start with the booking question. There was a lot doubles and modulars are encouraging. There are several factors that helped us in the quarter. We talked about our sales — growth of our sales teams. We have more sales reps in more markets. We closed several of the data center and other large industrial project opportunities that we’ve referenced and we continue to see growth in government opportunities. So on the booking side. And as you know, close orders and then there’s some period of time it can be months before those project sites are ready, and we’re actually delivering. And so I think what you’re seeing is the normal lead times and sales cycles between closing and delivering and billing projects. Keith, anything else you’d like to highlight there?

Keith E. Pratt: Yes, I think that answers it. I think the utilization comment as well just to reconcile that. I think Ronan, what we’re seeing is good leading indicators in terms of the bookings and the activity levels, and we’re actually shipping more, but offsetting that, we’re still getting returns that are higher than the ships, and that’s why you’re seeing the utilization metrics under pressure as it has been for multiple quarters now in this overall softer macro environment, softer with fewer of the sort of local construction projects. So again, positive with new business. but not enough to offset the returns that occur in the normal course for projects that started in previous periods.

Operator: We’ll take our next question from Scott Schneeberger with Oppenheimer.

Scott Schneeberger: Real nice quarter. You beat us top to bottom, and I love that you grew all the segments in rental revenue that was impressive in the quarter. It’s — and I guess, first, it would normally be a later question, but intriguing because of how infrequently you all make buybacks, but you did share repurchases in the quarter. I think it’s been many, many years since the last time you did that. I guess, Keith, first question for you, care to elaborate on that? And is that something that we should expect to persist.

Keith E. Pratt: Yes. I’d say share repurchases are something we review on a regular basis. It’s part of our capital allocation framework. As you know, we look at our capital requirements for organic investment, and that has been our primary use of capital over the years. We also, in recent years, are more active in M&A. So we have an active pipeline. We’re constantly reviewing opportunities in that pipeline that have potential — what potential size and timing they could have and all the normal things you would expect in terms of looking at dividend plans and other items. So you’re right, we haven’t done any repurchasing since the COVID era back in 2020, when we look at where we are today and especially with leverage being a little bit lower, the business being extremely healthy and then some attractive opportunities in terms of where the equity markets we’re trading in March.

We felt it was a good time to be active. We’ll continue to monitor opportunities in the market, and we have a very large authorization with over 1.8 million shares available and authorized for repurchase under the current plan. So this is a good tool in our capital allocation tool kit and 1 that we’re absolutely willing to use under the right circumstances.

Scott Schneeberger: I appreciate that. In — I want to ask, following up on Ronan’s questions in modular and add portable storage to this question. What kind of trends are you seeing in April? You start to get a bit more of a seasonal uptick, and we’re now largely through the month, you maintain the guidance for the total company, Dana will talk about TRS in a second. But — how is the seasonal uptick occurring? Are you seeing what you want to see to anticipate a good year. I know you’ve guarded a little bit on the Middle East conflict but — and what that could be, but not seeing it yet. So that aside, is it developing and shaping as you would have expected?

Philip Hawkins: I’ll take that one. I think everything we’ve seen so far through the month of April our activity levels is consistent with what we experienced in Q1. So solid bookings in Mobile Modular, still kind of flattish up portable storage and continued strength of TRS. So that’s what we’re seeing that helps us feel good about the guide for the rest of the year.

Scott Schneeberger: Appreciate that. The — and real nice to see in modular the new shipments at plus 1, that’s a good sign for the upcoming year. I want to ask about cadence of sales in modular — it was a little lighter in the quarter on a year-over-year basis, and that was due to a comp year-over-year comp. How should we think about the cadence over the course of this year? And how impactful can sales be, I guess, case for you to the model on a quarterly basis and then pulling up and thinking about it on an annual basis.

Keith E. Pratt: Sure. It’s actually 1 of the tougher parts of the business to give an answer against sales, we feel very good about our capabilities in the area as you know, we’ve described this as an initiative area. It’s very complementary to a lot of our customer engagement on larger rental opportunities. So we feel good about it as a sort of plank of our activities and as an initiative area. The sales side of the business is not immune from some of those macro factors that impact rentals. We’ve seen examples where projects are planned and get delayed or there are issues in the field with permitting. So we often run into situations where we have a good visibility on future projects. but being really confident about which month or even which quarter we’re going to see the revenue, that can be a lot more tricky.

guidance range for the year, and you see that breadth of the range on revenue, that in part reflects a lot of possibilities on the sales side. It could be a flat year to last year or even down a bit. It could also be a very positive year and up from last year. Really, at this point, it’s a pretty wide spectrum of possibilities. And then when you look at it by quarter, I would say it’s more typically more significant in the second half of the year. than the first half. And you can look from the outside, just as we look at the insights, look at past patterns as to how the sales have been recognized by quarter, but it is 1 of the trickier areas but it’s part of the business that we’re focused on. We have a good team. We see good long-term opportunity.

Scott Schneeberger: Great. And then last from me over to for the year. And it’s a continuation of a lot of momentum. The question is how much more momentum should we anticipate — or should we anticipate this level of sustained momentum going forward? And how long? Because you guys kind of are a data center story now. I know you don’t share exact numbers of how much — and it’s actually hard to record for you, how much is data center related. But I know you’re getting a lot in TRS. Does that mean that you have a long tail to this model, given the long tail we would expect of activity at data centers.

Philip Hawkins: I’ll take that one. Let me understand that everybody is looking more closely at TRS as they contribute to our performance in a more meaningful way. And we don’t have a crystal ball on these things. But our team has been through many technology cycles, and they know how to manage them well. I think our view of demand, even though we had shorter rental terms in this space is pretty solid for the rest of the year. and thus, it still feels like early to mid-innings on the whole data center play. And so we feel good about the TRS demand through the end of this year.

Operator: We’ll take our next question from Daniel Moore with CJS Securities.

Dan Moore: I apologize if you had this in the slides, and I missed it, but of the 4% growth in Mobile Modular, can you just talk about kind of price versus volume and your outlook for growth for the next several quarters?

Keith E. Pratt: Sure. One way to look at that, Dan, is if you look at the 4% growth in rental revenues, you can also see in our — both in the commentary today and in our Investor Relations pack, so the average unit on rent in the fleet, we’re getting 7% more revenue per unit, and I referred to that in my prepared remarks. and you can see it in the supporting materials. So how do you get from a 4% rental revenue growth if you’ve had a 7% lift in the revenue per unit. And the answer is we had roughly 3% fewer units on rent. and that’s how you sort of bridge those numbers. Those trends are fairly consistent with what we’ve seen in recent quarters. and I think they’re positive. And certainly, the opportunity here is when we get to the point where units on rent are not declining, and they’re flat. And at some point, we hope increasing, there will be even more horsepower in those dynamics.

Dan Moore: And from a margin perspective, sticking with profit, 13% growth was impressive. Just talk about the drivers and the sustainability of continuing to sort of expand margins year-on-year for at least there embedded in your guidance for the remainder of this year?

Keith E. Pratt: Yes. I think the thing that we always work through over the course of the year are the expenses we incur to get units ready to ship from the modular fleet. So again, we mentioned just for Q1, we keep a very close eye on the gross margin on rental revenues at modules. That was compressed, but it was compressed, I think, for the right reason, which is we’re busy getting equipment ready to go out on ramp. Some of those units went out in the first quarter. Others will go out in the months ahead. That’s normal in the business. those expenses tend to be heavier, typically the first couple of quarters, even the first 3 quarters of the year depending on the ebb and flow of shipment activity. If we look at it on a full year basis, margins, I would say, should be stable compared to last year.

And the expense investment moderates, we get us some opportunity to expand slightly. But I characterize things that’s fairly stable given that we’re making the right investments in the fleet, and we’re supporting higher levels of.

Dan Moore: Appreciate it. And shifting to portable storage. Obviously, a lot of work has been done in penetrating newer geographies generated 1% growth in a flat to down market. I think you said April flattish. Are you seeing green shoots that would — could indicate a return to growth in the next few quarters? And just talk about your confidence in the ability to continue to outpace the market.

Philip Hawkins: Yes, I look at that flattish activity levels, slight increase on revenue is positive given the macro conditions and nonresidential construction and the higher commercial construction exposure that, that business has. I don’t think that we’ve seen significant green shoots that cause us to feel like that market is improving significantly, and we’re holding our own in the current environment, last couple of ABI prints are closer to 50%, but still below. And so we pay close attention to that. We use our geographic expansion, services offerings, all those things drive capture more than our fair share of the projects that are out there, but I wouldn’t point to significant green shoots in the near term.

Keith E. Pratt: I would just add. And again, you could listen to this again in the prepared remarks. But just to acknowledge when we’re in that flattish and relatively stable demand environment, it’s certainly a positive compared to seeing reduced revenue and reduced shipments. On the other hand, when things are flat, it does create challenges in absorbing some of the normal expense increases in the cost structure that every business has to find and so we have a lot of work to do, and we’re fully aware of it, trying to get the cost, manage them closely, manage them efficiently and during this flattish period, it does mean earning EBITDA flat adjusted EBITDA is going to fix some work. So we’re focused on it, and it’s an important part of the journey this year to do as well as we can. Certainly, if the demand environment edges in our favor at any point, that’s going to really help a lot.

Dan Moore: Understood. Last for me. Enviroplex sales obviously can be lumpy. Just are you seeing any kind of slowing in demand? Or was the decline in Q1 sales just a little bit more episodic.

Keith E. Pratt: Yes. Dan, I’ll go back to some comments I made back in February and just say in Biriplexin 2026, I think performance in terms of revenue and adjusted EBITDA is likely to look a lot closer to 2024 when compared with the very, very strong 2025 that we have. So again, I would go back, look at 2024. And by the way, by historical standards, 2024 was actually a very good year. It was 2025 that was exceptional. So in a sense, it’s created some very tough comps for us. It’s not uncommon to start the year in that business. relatively modest amounts of revenue being recognized and not uncommon to have a loss in that part of the business in the early part of the year. If you look historically, that happens on a fairly regular basis.

So again, the results we had this year in Q1, they’re fine, but compared to the very strong Q1 of last year and full year of last year, it looks a bit more challenged. But it’s a good business. We have a great team there, great engagement with customers. It’s a good part of the picture.

Operator: We’ll take our next question from Steven Ramsey with Thompson Research Group.

Steven Ramsey: I wanted to start with the bookings and modular good story and good elaboration in the Q&A, I wanted to hear about cross-selling in the bookings that you’re seeing more recently, cross-selling of modular Plus, SRS and even storage, if there’s — how you would describe the cross-selling within bookings currently.

Keith E. Pratt: Yes. I think that’s 1 of the things that we talk about that’s leading to those price movements that Keith Tom spoke about earlier is the addition, further penetration of those services and there’s really a couple of things going on there. One, we — our sales team continues to be more effective at adding those services in, educating the customers on what we have to offer there. but also continuing to add services that we — that our customers find value in. And so we look at both of those things as long-term flywheels that have lots of room to run. And you can see in the investor deck, we’ve got really solid growth rates in both modular Plus which are the services that building and then site-related services, the other things we can do for our customer around the site during the project.

Our sales teams also work closely together between the modular and the portable storage side. We’re always looking for opportunities to leverage as many products as possible on the job side. So I don’t think there’s anything new or different numbers there, but further penetration and addition of services is an ongoing trend.

Steven Ramsey: And then I wanted to think about this bookings growth amidst units coming back off of rent kind of a multiyear headwind of units coming off of rent. Do you think we crossed the river on that in 2026? Or do you see a pathway that maybe that shapes up in ’27.

Keith E. Pratt: Yes, it’s a tough one. We’re watching it very closely. I think if you look at the change in units on rent, the decline was a little less in Q1 than maybe the last few quarters. I think the short answer is we’re not 100% sure when that crossover will come. What we can work on is the front end, which is work with customers, win projects, continue to try and drive success in the market. the returns, as you can appreciate, we don’t control when a customer finishes up a project and it’s time to return things. But at some point, logically, if demand is as healthy as it was a few years ago, you would think those 2 things start to balance it between shipment and returns. Hard to tell if we’ll see it by the end of this year. We’d certainly like it to be the case. but we’re not making strong assumptions that there’s a big shift there in the near term.

Steven Ramsey: Fair enough. Okay. And I wanted to think about TRS demand rising utilization rising, yet the fleet size still in that 22,000 unit range the past 5 quarters. Do you feel like — or does the CapEx guide embed an increase in units in the TRS fleet for 2026.

Keith E. Pratt: Yes. All good observations. I mean the first thing I would acknowledge is we’ve got an outstanding team in that business. They actually did a wonderful job when they went through a part of the cycle where demand was decreasing, and they very heartfully reduce the size of the equipment pool. They successfully sold used equipment at very strong margins. really did a wonderful job in difficult business conditions. The nice thing is the business conditions have not shifted, we had a very good year last year. We followed that with a very good start to this year. As was discussed earlier on the call, we’re getting some benefit from data center-related work. So where we stand today is the — that team is doing an excellent job running the business.

Utilization, as I mentioned, was the best first quarter utilization since 2021 and we’re more than happy now to add capital. We actually ended the quarter and you can see these details in the 10-Q, but we ended the quarter with utilization at TRS above 68%. So when we’re at that kind of a level, that’s very high fo that business on any kind of historical more capital to work. And if the healthy demand continues, that’s what we’re going to be doing. And you’re correct in saying that once we increased the gross CapEx guide for this year, is, in fact, we saw the probability that this good opportunity at TRS would continue, and we would want to deploy more capital into that business.

Philip Hawkins: Ramsey, I’d also just add to that. I’d pay more attention, like Keith was saying, to the actual dollars of CapEx and fleet size — units in that business is the high variability in cost per unit. So if demand is growing and the more expensive equipment, you’re not going to see it in the units, but you’ll see it in the size of the inventory and the CapEx numbers that I think you’re seeing that.

Steven Ramsey: Okay. And then last 1 for me, TRS serving data centers. I guess first quick 1 there. Is more rental happening for this activity than your customers owning this equipment? And then secondly, is the margin profile serving data centers is it comparable or superior to the segment results.

Philip Hawkins: I’ll start with the work that we’re doing in data centers is the same work that we’re doing on smaller scale for the other customers that we work with every day. So there’s nothing you need happening in the data center environment, just that there’s a whole lot more of it happening all at 1 time. So it’s a — it’s a volume play versus there’s not anything really strange and unique happening in that. We’re just able to provide that to more customers and they need more equipment at once. So no changes in the rent versus buy model there that we can see. It’s just there’s more rental needs than they were before because of the size of these facilities. The thing I would say on margin, and Keith, you can add your comments here.

I think we’re still in the early days where there’s getting the equipment, getting the data center up and running, high priority, things are happening fast. And so there may be less focus on price and more focus on speed of delivery and getting things up and running. I think that goes through a natural cycle. And so there may be some moves that we’ll see there. In the early days, we tend to — maybe get a little better rates early on, but there will be a natural shift there that we would see in a normal technology cycle. Keith, anything you want to cover there?

Keith E. Pratt: Yes, I think you’ve hit the important point, Phil. Again, I don’t know that there’s a big difference in the rent versus own decision. I mean people usually ramp it project-based work and making sure they have access to good quality equipment that’s reliable, well calibrated things like that. I think from a margin point of view, on a transaction basis, there’s really not a lot of difference. We’re pretty consistent in how we look at that across the business. and the opportunity, and you see some of that in the numbers for the quarter is as the business is achieving, number one, a larger volume of business, there’s some benefit to scale. and then the very effective management of the equipment pool where we’re getting more utilization of the equipment that we own. Those factors on a total division basis are very helpful in terms of progressing with margins over time.

Operator: [Operator Instructions] We’ll take our next question from Marc Riddick with Sidoti.

Marc Riddick: And certainly, a lot has been covered already. I did want to touch a little bit on where you’re seeing progress thus far in some of the growth opportunities and initiatives that you’ve undertaken. Maybe you could talk a little bit about sort of where you are as far as the geographic footprint as well as sales efforts and sort of how we might sort of see that evolve through the year.

Philip Hawkins: Yes, I’ll take that one, Mark. I think Keith talked a little bit about the sales dynamic a little earlier and we talked about Mold Modular Plus site-related services. So maybe that geographic expansion is a good place to spend a little more time — this is really 1 of our high priority strategic growth drivers. And I’m really pleased with the progress we’ve made in this area. We did a nice job adding to the team last year. We’re getting some good traction with customers in the markets that we’ve entered. We don’t typically share specific market information for competitive reasons. But let me give you a couple of flavors of the way that we go about this work. it could be adding a new sales rep or doing an acquisition in a state that we didn’t have a sales presence, maybe didn’t even have rental fleet coded for that market before.

So that’s 1 option, or it could be adding a sales presence in an adjacent metro market that broadens our sales coverage and brings additional opportunities to deploy existing fleet from 1 of our larger facilities. And so we’ve used both of those methods successfully — since we started this initiative coming out of early 2025 to increase our sales footprint and serve our customers in more parts of the country, and we’re happy with the progress so far.

Marc Riddick: Excellent. And then I did want to touch on — I think in your prepared remarks, you made commentary around rental-related services, competitive pressures and margin challenges that I guess maybe more focusing on the competitive landscape, I guess, maybe if you could touch a little bit about what you’re seeing there that might be a little different or what we should be looking at as similar as on the rental related services side?

Keith E. Pratt: Yes. Thanks, Mark. It’s a good topic. And again, the comments were just around the portable storage business. And so I sort of begin by saying always in this business — it’s very difficult to make much money on the delivery of units and the pickup of units. It’s just a part of the business that’s not really significant from a profit generation point of view. And in some instances, we’ve seen in the past, it’s an area where it is lost. And so as the market is much more competitive in recent year or recent quarters, we’ve seen some of the smaller players much more willing to sharpen their pencil and what they charge for a delivery or pickup. As you know, we try to preserve very disciplined pricing on the monthly rental charge.

And even on the deliveries pick up, we don’t really pressure there, but the industry environment is very competitive. And I would say it’s harder to cover your costs now than it was 2 or 3 years ago. That’s the reality. And if you look specifically at our numbers in the first quarter. I would say there were a few, I’d kind of call it elements of noise in the numbers that worked a little bit against us. So we’ll be working hard to do as well as we can in that area, but it is an area where everybody struggles with making any money. And for us, getting to breakeven would be great. But that’s the journey from where we are currently, given the market conditions.

Marc Riddick: Okay. Great. And then last 1 for me. I did want to circle back on the share repurchase activity, and that certainly was kind of jumped out a little bit. Can you talk a little bit — you talked about already as far as the thought process behind — can you talk a little bit about the timing that we saw there? Was that sort of throughout the quarter, ending of the quarter in the quarter? Is there sort of a pacing there that we should be aware of?

Philip Hawkins: March. So there’s some additional information in the 10-Q, but we were active in the month of March. And as I mentioned earlier, we review this capital allocation opportunity on a routine basis. And when we look at all the other capital allocation decisions we’re making, this is 1 that we want to consider carefully, and we’re very well positioned in terms of our debt capacity and our availability to act and we have a large authorization. We still have a remaining authorization in excess of 1.8 million shares. So that’s an area we active in March. We may act again on an ongoing basis, but we don’t telegraph our intentions ahead of time. But we’ll give you the activity in that area.

Operator: [Operator Instructions] There appear to be no other questions. This concludes the Q&A portion of today’s call. I’d like to now turn the floor over to Mr. Hawkins for closing remarks.

Philip Hawkins: I’d like to thank everyone for joining us on the call today and for your continuing interest in our company. We look forward to speaking with you again in late July to review our second quarter results.

Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today’s conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.