TopBuild Corp. (NYSE:BLD) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

Robert Kuhns: Yeah. Michael, this is Rob. I’ll start on that one. I mean, when you look at MBI for us today, it’s roughly about 6% of our revenue. It’s important to also clarify for people it falls into that middle vertical or that middle market on our slide for the commercial building envelope. It’s not the mechanical space. It’s the commercial building envelope. And from our view, when you go to insulate a metal building, there’s multiple options you can do, right? Laminated fiberglass is one option and that’s what we do and that’s what SPI did as well. For them, it was about 15% of their total revenue. So relatively small pieces for both of us. That’s where it’s a small niche within that commercial building envelope. When you go to insulate a commercial building, you could use laminated fiberglass, you can use spray foam, you can use insulated metal panels and that’s how we thought about the market more broadly, but the DOJ narrowed in on that laminated fiberglass, which is a much smaller piece of the overall market there.

So, in terms of our M&A strategy going forward, it doesn’t really concern us, we’re already obviously a large player in that very small niche and we’re not as big a player in the rest of the commercial building space or in the mechanical space and that’s where we’ll continue to do M&A going forward.

Robert Buck: And obviously, Mike, that’s where the focus was really around that small niche of the MBI side. So, no concern across the rest of the business and there’s really not much that takes off the table relative to the MBI other than the decision we just made.

Michael Rehaut: Right. So, I guess, just kind of following on that and appreciate the additional color there. As you look at the landscape of potential targets across, the commercial industrial space, the building envelope and the mechanical, in the past you’ve kind of said that there were maybe half a dozen or less kind of larger potential acquisitions, medium to larger and you kind of walk through the different — relative sizes. With SPI off the table, to the extent that some of these other medium to larger size potential targets also have MBI, I’m just kind of curious if that kind of changes the calculus or the likelihood of some of those other larger players or was this kind of a one-off where the other kind of larger medium to larger targets wouldn’t necessarily have this niche issue that the DOJ kind of zeroed in on.

Robert Buck: Great question, Mike. So this is Robert. So, you hit on it there. The other players really don’t have the MBI niche piece of the business. That’s why we keep saying it’s really zero concern for us from an M&A strategy perspective. So, it doesn’t really exist in any of the other targets. So, we talked about in the past or, any of the ones that we’re focused on. So really not an issue.

Michael Rehaut: Great. And then one last quick one if I could. When you talk about raising the guidance and you kind of said that it was driven off of the better first quarter profitability and the 1Q acquisitions. Just wanted to clarify that whether or not it included the most recent acquisition of the Arkansas installer and also if it reflects any level of success with the June-July price increases.

Robert Kuhns: Hey, Michael. This is Rob. So, it does not include either one of those. So, it doesn’t include — we don’t include any acquisitions that we haven’t yet closed. So, the Arkansas acquisition that we announced will be incremental. And then, likewise, we haven’t baked in any incremental pricing at this point. We’ve put in — obviously what we know from the Q1 price increase, but we haven’t baked in that additional price increase, that potential price increase later this year.

Michael Rehaut: Okay. Thanks so much.

Robert Buck: Thank you.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Rafe Jadrosich with Bank of America. Please proceed with your question.

Shaun Calnan: Hi, guys. This is actually Shaun Calnan on for Rafe. So, Spray Foam has come up a couple of times on this call. Can you talk about your current exposure to spray foam either in terms of volume or revenue? And then are you seeing the demand pick up for that as the price begins to narrow between that and some of more of the traditional insulation products?

Robert Kuhns: Yeah, Shaun, I’ll give you a couple of quick numbers and then Robert can expand on what’s going on in the industry a little bit with spray foam. But from a unit’s basis, in terms of the houses we insulate, it’s probably roughly 10% on the unit’s basis. From a dollar’s perspective though, it’s going to be north of 20% because the cost on spray foam’s roughly 2X, maybe a little more than that, closer to 2.5 in some places in terms of the cost per unit. But Robert, can talk a little bit about some of the dynamics there with spray foam right now.

Robert Buck: Yeah. So, you’re definitely seeing the momentum in the product, Shaun. One is, definitely a big tailwind coming from the codes that we’ve talked about. So, you see even from the production of home builders are becoming very interested in that product to reach the 45L. Rebate piece and make sure they deliver upon that. So, yeah, definitely momentum with the product, both smaller builders, custom builders, but then also even with production builders. And then, last point I would just say is around commercial. We see more spray foam inspect in commercial projects as well. So, it’s got some momentum really across the board.

Shaun Calnan: Got it. And then, in yesterday’s Installation Works announcement, you guys specifically called out the agricultural market. Can you give us a rough estimate of how much that segment currently contributes to sales, and then what you think the market opportunity is there?

Robert Buck: Yeah. For us today, it’s a pretty small piece for us. We do that across the country in different parts. I think about the Northeast as an example. Southeast, we do it, but what we love about Installation Works and the ownership group there is they really are a national player in that. Great relationships, great expertise, even with some of the large poultry producers across the country. So, they’re bringing a whole new level, which will really be something we can build upon across the country for TopBuild.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Philip Ng with Jefferies. Please proceed with your question.

Philip Ng: Hey, guys. I guess, my question is do you have any chunkier deals in the pipeline, especially on the C&I side. And just given how strong your balance sheet is in free cash flow, perhaps Rob, how are you thinking about pacing this buyback is, like at least on my math, a $1 billion buyback, not saying you would buy the whole thing this year. It would still get you to a balance sheet like one times or less from a levered standpoint. So, one, color on chunkier deals, and two, how are you thinking about pacing this $1 billion buyback authorization program you just announced?