Eagle Materials (EXP) Fiscal Q2 2027 Earnings Call: Record Revenue, Higher Costs Pressure EPS

Key Takeaways

• Eagle Materials (NYSE: EXP) reported record fiscal Q2 2027 revenue of $653 million, up 2% year over year, supported by record cement sales volume and higher Wallboard and Recycled Paperboard volumes.
• Diluted EPS was $3.63, down 14%, as elevated diesel prices increased freight costs across all business lines. A 5% reduction in diluted shares partly offset the pressure.
• Heavy Materials revenue increased 2%, while operating earnings fell 12% due mainly to higher freight and raw material costs.
• Light Materials revenue rose 2% to $216 million, but operating earnings declined 13% to $68 million, primarily because of lower net Wallboard pricing and higher freight costs.
• Management maintained fiscal 2027 capital expenditure guidance of $490 million to $525 million. Spending is expected to peak this fiscal year before declining significantly in fiscal 2028.
• The company announced cement price increases of approximately $10 to $15 per ton in most markets, effective January 1, 2027, citing high utilization rates and higher costs.

Key Financial Data

Business and Operating Performance

Cement demand remained supported by public infrastructure spending and large private nonresidential projects, including data centers. Management said public infrastructure represents about 50% of cement demand and expects infrastructure and private nonresidential construction to be the main growth drivers entering calendar 2027.

Residential construction remained weak because of elevated interest rates and affordability constraints. This continued to limit Wallboard demand and pricing. Management said Wallboard consumption was running near levels last seen around 2018.

Diesel prices were the largest cost headwind and accounted for more than half of the quarter’s cost increase. Higher transportation expenses affected cement, Wallboard, Recycled Paperboard and inbound raw materials. Purchased raw material costs in cement also increased because of higher volumes purchased, commodity costs and freight.

The Mountain Cement modernization in Laramie, Wyoming, remains on schedule. Management expects construction to be substantially complete by the next quarterly call, followed by approximately two quarters of commissioning. The existing plant experienced another operational disruption in October, and Eagle Materials has been shipping cement from its broader network to support customers.

The Duke, Oklahoma, Wallboard modernization is expected to complete construction and commissioning around one year after the Laramie project, with the company also pointing to mid-fiscal 2028 as the expected timing.

Management Guidance

Eagle Materials continues to expect fiscal 2027 capital expenditures of $490 million to $525 million. Management expects capital spending to peak in fiscal 2027 and decline significantly in fiscal 2028 after construction at Mountain Cement is completed.

Management said many Mountain Cement cost savings should begin benefiting margins in the latter part of fiscal 2028. Achieving the full targeted 25% cost savings requires selling the new plant’s full capacity, which the company expects will take several years.

The company plans to implement cement price increases of approximately $10 to $15 per ton across most markets from January 1, 2027. Management said utilization rates remain high but noted that diesel prices continue to be elevated.

Risks and Watch Items

• Elevated diesel prices and freight rates are pressuring margins across all business lines and remained high after the quarter ended.
• Purchased cement raw material costs are expected to remain at elevated levels based on current commodity costs.
• Mountain Cement’s aging 1960s equipment continues to create unplanned downtime during the modernization process.
• Commissioning the new Mountain Cement plant will take about two quarters and could require additional cement shipments from the company’s network, raising freight costs.
• Wallboard demand remains constrained by high interest rates, weak housing affordability and subdued residential construction.
• The timing of full Mountain Cement savings depends on commissioning progress and the ability to sell the plant’s expanded capacity.

Analyst Q&A Highlights

On cement demand, management said public infrastructure and private nonresidential construction should remain the primary drivers in calendar 2027. State budgets remain healthy, funds from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act are still available, and data center projects continue to support backlog in Eagle Materials’ markets.

Regarding Mountain Cement commissioning, management said the company can alternate between the new kiln and the two older kilns while resolving startup issues. Its broader cement network provides additional supply flexibility, although moving outside tonnage may temporarily increase freight expense.

On Wallboard, management said a meaningful recovery requires improved housing affordability. The company will monitor interest rates and demand heading into the spring selling season.

Management also said its enterprise resource planning system has been deployed across about half of the company. ERP implementation and healthcare expenses are expected to remain near current elevated levels.

Full Earnings Call Transcript

Complete Earnings Call Transcript

Management Remarks

Operator

Good day, everyone, and welcome to the Eagle Materials Second Quarter of Fiscal 2027 Earnings Conference Call. This call is being recorded. At this time, I would like to turn the call over to Eagle's President and Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Michael Haack. Mr. Haack, please go ahead, sir.

Michael Haack

Thanks, Dave. Good morning. Welcome to Eagle Materials conference call for our second quarter of fiscal year 2027. This is Michael Haack. Joining me today are Craig Kesler, our Chief Financial Officer; and Alex Haddock, Senior Vice President of Investor Relations, Strategy and Corporate Development.

There will be a slide presentation made in connection with this call. To access it, please go to eaglematerials.com and click on the link to the webcast. While you're accessing the slides, please note that the first slide covers our cautionary disclosure regarding forward-looking statements made during this call. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause results to differ from those discussed during the call. For further information, please refer to this disclosure, which is also included at the end of our press release.

Within this rapidly changing and challenging macroeconomic landscape, several -- including elevated diesel fuel prices, our businesses performed well this quarter. Some highlights for the quarter are second quarter revenue was a record $653 million. We generated solid EPS of $3.63, and we repurchased $62 million worth of shares while keeping our net leverage ratio at 2.1x.

I'm consistently impressed by our team's operational focus. In this difficult operating environment, they stayed relentlessly focused on servicing customers and upholding our rigorous health and safety standards. In the second quarter, we saw continued progress across the organization with regards to safety. We achieved reductions in recordable and lost time incident rates versus the prior year. This was the result of a sustained effort by our personnel at the plants to look out for each other and to operate safely. We continue to operate well below industry averages and will not stop until we meet our goal of 0 incidents.

Strategically, I'm also happy to report construction time lines for our Mountain Cement and Duke Wallboard plant modernizations and the realization of their benefits remain on track. By our next quarterly earnings call, construction of our modernized cement plant in Laramie, Wyoming, should be substantially complete. Once construction is complete, commissioning of the new plant will take about 2 quarters. During the commissioning phase, we'll be getting the plant up and running to full operating efficiency. Commissioning is not an easy task, and it will be an all-hands-on-deck effort across Eagle Materials. We have extensive experience with plant start-ups, and we'll be drawing on the collective expertise of our plant operators across Eagle. I will continue to report on our progress over the coming quarters.

I did want to mention that the modernization of the Mountain Cement is critical and timely. The old plant continues to suffer from unplanned downtime given the age of its 1960s equipment. In October, our Mountain Cement plant experienced another disruption unrelated to the issues we resolved in July. We are addressing the current operational issues and have been shipping cement from our broader network to ensure that our customers are supported. Importantly, throughout construction and commissioning, even with some operational issues with our old plant, there will be no commercial disruption for our customers, and we look forward to continuing to serve their product needs.

By the later part of fiscal 2028, many of the cost savings we've highlighted before will be accretive to the margin profile of our Mountain Cement plant. Achieving the full 25% cost savings does require selling the full capacity of the new plant, which will take several years to complete. Our Duke Wallboard plant modernization will follow a similar cadence with completion of both construction and commissioning occurring about 1 year after our Laramie, Wyoming, cement plant is complete. Once we finish the construction at Laramie, we'll see a significant step-down in capital expenditures for fiscal year 2028, resulting in increased free cash flow.

It is important to reiterate that our capital allocation priorities remain unchanged. Over several decades, we have maintained the same strategic clarity and consistency. Our balance sheet health is the crucial starting point. Our net leverage profile will keep us ready to execute on attractive growth opportunities that meet our financial and strategic criteria. We'll continue to look at high-impact, high-return organic projects, although securing cement plant upgrade permits remains extremely difficult and the rest of our Wallboard plant footprint is in good health.

On the M&A front, we remain active exploring opportunities within our core businesses, and the pipeline for deals remains robust, especially in aggregates. Fragmentation in the U.S. aggregate industry creates opportunity for us as we have been -- as we can be patient and find differentiated value in the right deals at the right time and for the right price. Any investment we pursue must strengthen our footprint and low-cost position and meet our financial return threshold. When there is no compelling investment on the immediate horizon, we will continue to opportunistically buy our shares back.

That's a good spot for me to quickly comment on the macro environment we are seeing for our products. In our Heavy Materials sector, despite challenging weather conditions last quarter in some markets, volume held up, supported by public infrastructure and data center activity. Even with the continuing resolution between federal infrastructure bills and a higher public scrutiny of data centers, our customers believe the tailwinds for cement and aggregates will remain as we enter calendar year 2027. As a result, in cement and aggregates, we have communicated price increases to our customers for most of our markets effective January 1, 2027.

Wallboard demand will likely remain challenged in the near term since the current interest rate environment is keeping a low ceiling on residential construction. When the housing market does turn, we will have already lowered our low-cost position even more with the modernization of our oldest wallboard plant at Duke. In the near term, we also faced cost headwinds across all of our business lines given increased diesel prices and freight rates, which negatively affected our businesses both sequentially and year-over-year.

Our low-cost position serves us well when we see cost spikes. We know what levers to pull to control costs, operate efficiently and serve our customers. That is the Eagle way. We make the right investments regardless of where we are in the cycle, knowing that our commodity businesses are cyclical in nature. When we come out of the current trough, Eagle will be a stronger, better positioned and more profitable company than we were in prior cycles. Craig, I'll pause here and turn it over to you for more specifics on our quarterly financial results.

D. Kesler

Thank you, Michael. Second quarter revenue reached a record $653 million, an increase of 2% compared with the prior year. This strong performance was driven by record cement sales volume, along with higher sales volume in both Wallboard and Recycled Paperboard. However, this revenue growth was offset by higher operating costs, namely transportation costs due to elevated diesel prices across all businesses, which contributed to a 14% decrease in second quarter earnings per share. This decline was partially mitigated by a 5% reduction in our fully diluted shares as a result of our share repurchase program.

Turning now to segment performance highlighted on the next slide. In our Heavy Materials sector, which includes our Cement and Concrete and Aggregates segments, revenue was up 2%, driven primarily by increased cement sales volume, which continued to be supported by strong infrastructure spending as well as large private nonresidential projects. Operating earnings were down 12%, primarily because of higher freight costs from rising diesel fuel prices and raw material costs.

Moving to the Light Materials sector on the next slide. Second quarter revenue in our Light Materials sector also increased 2% to $216 million, reflecting higher Wallboard and Recycled Paperboard sales volume, which was partially offset by a decline in Wallboard sales prices. Operating earnings in the sector were down 13% to $68 million, primarily because of lower net Wallboard sales prices, which were significantly impacted by higher freight costs.

Looking now at our cash flow. We continue to generate strong cash flow and allocate capital in a disciplined manner, consistent with our long-term strategic priorities. During the first 6 months of our fiscal year, operating cash flow increased 7% to $364 million, reflecting the strength of our businesses, the resilience of our operating model and the expected tax benefits from our capital spending program.

Capital expenditures totaled $250 million during the first half of the fiscal year, driven primarily by investments in the modernization and expansion of our Mountain Cement plant in Laramie, Wyoming, and the modernization of our Duke, Oklahoma, Wallboard facility. These are high-return projects that will enhance operating efficiency, improve reliability and further strengthen our competitive position. Looking ahead, we continue to expect fiscal 2027 capital expenditures of between $490 million and $525 million to fund these strategic growth initiatives as well as ongoing sustaining capital investments across the business segments. Capital spending is expected to peak in fiscal 2027 with construction of Mountain Cement on track to be completed later this calendar year and at the Duke Wallboard plant in mid-fiscal 2028.

At the same time, we continued returning capital to shareholders, a goal enabled by our strong balance sheet. During the first half of our fiscal year, we returned a total of $162 million through our dividend and the repurchase of approximately 711,000 shares. We ended the quarter with approximately 2.2 million shares remaining under our current repurchase authorization.

Let's look now at our capital structure. We remain committed to maintaining a prudent capital structure and preserving significant financial strength and flexibility. At September 30, 2026, our net debt-to-cap ratio was 50%, and our net debt-to-EBITDA leverage ratio was 2.1x. We believe these levels are both prudent and supportive of our growth strategy. We ended the quarter with $241 million of cash on hand and nearly $1 billion of total committed liquidity. Combined with no significant near-term debt maturities, this strong liquidity position gives us the flexibility to continue investing in our businesses, return capital to shareholders and pursue growth opportunities while maintaining a disciplined approach to balance sheet management. With that, thank you for joining us on today's call. Dave, we'll now open the line for questions.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Trey Grooms with Stephens. Please go ahead.

Question-and-Answer Session

Trey Grooms

So first off, maybe looking at Cement, I know it's early, but could you give us maybe some thoughts on how you're thinking about the demand drivers for cement, so infrastructure, private nonres and residential as we look into calendar '27?

D. Kesler

Yes. Good question, Trey. As you know, the largest driver, about 50% of the demand for cement is driven by public infrastructure spending. That's both at a state level and at a federal level. Obviously, a lot of attention gets spent on the multiyear federal highway program. As Michael mentioned, we're in a continuing resolution post-IIJA. But we still have significant funds from IIJA to be spent. The continuing resolution will be supportive, and the state budgets are still in very good health. So continue to see good strength there in public infrastructure.

And then on the private nonresidential side, we're not first to say this. I mean data centers have been moving the needle very meaningfully there. They're very meaningful in our markets. And so we continue to see good strength and good backlog for those types of activities. The third, obviously, is residential construction activity, and that continues to be a little slower given where interest rates are and -- but it's been at this low level for quite some time now. But as we look into calendar '27, we continue to see an opportunity for growth in our markets. And really, the 2 drivers will be the public infrastructure and private nonres.

Trey Grooms

Got it. All right. And then my second question is, clearly, your margins being impacted by higher costs, everybody is facing these higher costs and higher freight. Can you talk about how you're looking to navigate these headwinds as we, again, kind of start looking into the new year, opportunities for pricing you might see on the horizon for both sides of the business. Just thoughts about cost pricing and how you're kind of looking at both of those as we look into next year.

D. Kesler

Yes. Again, we've commented on it in the release and in our prepared comments. We saw diesel prices impact our cost structure across the -- every business line from cement to Wallboard and even on paper side on inbound freight for recycled fiber and other inbound raw materials. So that was more than half of the increase in costs during this most recent quarter. Diesel prices remain elevated post the quarter.

We're fortunate. The other kind of issues around costs, given our raw material structure, our long-term reserves that we have in place, we don't have significant headwinds there, but diesel has been the biggest mover. And obviously, that can change depending upon world events. I think Michael mentioned, we do have price increases in most of our cement markets that have been announced for early January. Those are anywhere between $10 to $14, $15 a ton depending upon the market. And given the utilization rates that are pretty high, we'll be moving forward with those increases as we get into the early calendar year.

Operator

And the next question comes from Brian Brophy with Stifel. Please go ahead.

Brian Brophy

Just 1 on the commissioning of this new cement plant. I'm curious if that's production levels at the old plant at all. And bigger picture, I'm just curious as to the moving pieces of how you expect to serve the customers through that commissioning phase and if there's any margin implications we should keep in mind?

Michael Haack

Yes. When we look at the old plant, to give you some background on the old plant, the old plant in 1960s, it has 2 kilns at the old plant. We're making this a very streamlined operation with a shorter single kiln that runs. We've also put in some -- we understand bringing a new plant up is a big task. We have expertise in this area. So we feel confident we'll come up on a timely manner. However, that will take a couple of quarters.

To make sure that our customers are supported, we are able to run the 2 older kilns at any time, so we could actually switch to the newer kiln, run it, find if there's bugs, switch back to the older kilns if we had to and continue to run. So we don't expect -- between that and our network of cement plants, we don't expect any kind of disruption to our customers.

Now the question you had on cost, yes, when we do bring in additional tonnage to support those customers, which is what we're going to do, to support our customers, that we do get a little bit of impact on the freight cost side with that side with it. So there will be a little bit elevated depending on how much tons we have to bring in and how quick that kiln comes up as we do our commissioning.

Brian Brophy

Appreciate it. That's really helpful. And then just kind of a follow-up to the cost question. You did call out purchased raw material costs as a margin headwind for cement in the press release. Just any more color on what those pressures were? Was that just a function of diesel as well? And how sustained should we think about some of those cost pressures being?

D. Kesler

Yes. No, Brian, you're right. It's a combination. So some of the outside raw materials that we do purchase, we purchased a little higher quantities of those this quarter. And -- but also the just freight for bringing those raw materials in is up as well. It's almost a pretty even split between those 2. And again, diesel remains elevated. We'll see as that changes going forward or if it changes going forward. But I'd expect to see the purchased raw material costs remain at these more elevated levels just on the commodity of the purchased raw material.

Operator

And the next question comes from Anthony Pettinari with Citi. Please go ahead.

Anthony Pettinari

Wallboard results were a bit better than we expected. And I'm just wondering if you could talk a little bit more about the market as you're kind of seeing it now. And I guess some of the homebuilders talked about kind of a step-down from September to October with mortgage rates above 7%. Just wondering if you could talk a little bit more about kind of Wallboard demand and as you kind of went through the 3 months of the quarter and into October, just sort of what you're seeing.

D. Kesler

Yes. Thanks, Anthony. Look, I mean, residential construction has been challenged for quite some time now and remains challenging. Trying to pick up trends is, frankly, a little more difficult today than it has been. And you pointed out with higher interest rates. Yes, you do have this backdrop, though, of we are still undersupplied. On a historical basis, we're way below trend from a housing and certainly wallboard consumption levels. So we're pacing at levels that we haven't seen in quite some time going back to 2018 type of levels.

And so it's -- we'll head into the winter. We'll see as we head into the spring selling season, what happens to interest rates here. We've seen a nice drop in the last 10 to 15 days in the 10-year. But certainly, for -- to see a significant pickup in activity, we need to see a much better improvement in affordability.

Anthony Pettinari

Got it. Got it. That's helpful. And then just switching gears on corporate expense, you noted the costs around implementing the ERP system. And I don't know if you could put any kind of finer point on where you're at in that process and maybe kind of any impacts we should expect going forward?

D. Kesler

Yes. We've rolled it out across about half of the company, and our teams have done a very good job of doing that. It comes at some of these elevated costs. We also pointed out that health care costs, I think we've seen this across many enterprises over the last year or so, but our health care costs this quarter were also elevated versus the prior year. So I don't anticipate a significant change on either 1 of those items as we move forward. And I would expect it to remain at these levels.

Operator

This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Mr. Michael Haack for any closing remarks.

Michael Haack

Thanks, Dave. We continue to make good progress across our strategic priorities, and we are performing well despite market choppiness. I'm looking forward to providing an update on both of our capital projects and the commissioning of our Mountain Cement facility at our next quarterly call. Thanks for joining our call today.

Operator

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.