Wabash Posts Higher Q1 Profits, Raises Full-Year Guidance
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Trailer maker Wabash National Corp. reported higher first-quarter results, and increased its full-year guidance on revenue.
For the quarter ended March 31, the company reported a net profit of $3.2 million, or 6 cents per diluted share, compared with a net loss of $106.6 million, or a loss of $2.01, a year earlier.
Revenue rose to $392 million compared with $387 million in the comparable 2020 period.
The Lafayette, Ind.-based company increased its full-year guidance on revenue to $2.05 billion from $1.95 billion and maintained its earnings per diluted share midpoint of 75 cents with a range of 70 cents to 80 cents.
“During the first quarter, the Wabash team executed well to navigate the unprecedented labor and supply-chain challenges that have impacted our industry in addition to all U.S. manufacturing sectors,” CEO Brent Yeagy said in a release.
“Freight activity in the United States remains exceptionally strong and we are focused on adding the system capacity to support our customers’ demand for equipment now and into the future.”
Segment highlights include:
Commercial Trailer Products’ revenue slipped 1.3% to $247.7 million compared with a year earlier as operations scaled to meet improved customer demand. Operating income was $20.9 million or 8.4% of sales during the quarter. It shipped 9,250 trailers compared with 8,525 a year earlier.
Yeagy said winter storms during the quarter reduced shipments, specifically a seven-day period of disruption.
“A seven-day period of disruption in outbound shipment tailed off somewhat at the end of that week,” he said, “but that was something that really impacted that specific business segment’s ability to ship product and recognize revenue in the period.”
Diversified Products’ revenue fell to $74 million, a drop of 10.8% compared with the prior year, as it worked to ramp up. Additionally, the revenue decline was influenced by a divestiture completed in the prior year, Wabash said. Operating income was $6.1 million, or 8.2% of sales during the quarter.
WNC Earnings Slides Q1 2021 by Transport Topics
The group shipped 420 trailers in the quarter compared with 625 in the comparable 2020 period. The company reported the average selling price for new trailers within the group was roughly $72,000, which represents a 4% increase compared with a year earlier.
The group includes, among other activities, tank trailers, trailer aerodynamics and composite technology.
Yeagy said conversations with customers about composite technology went beyond refrigerated vans and refrigerated truck bodies.
“We think it is being actively researched and prototyped in spaces outside of our, call it, current portfolio, transportation-related solutions in an active and very scalable way. That’s all in, what I would call, early prototype phase,” he said, and suggested that could include smaller vehicle solutions “to solve a multiproblem set of how you deliver and distribute, redistribute and move within a full logistics chain, logistics cold chain.”
Final Mile Products’ revenue totaled $77.1 million, an increase of 27.9% compared with the prior year, amid stronger market demand. Its operating loss was $3.9 million during the quarter.
Wabash National designs and manufactures dry freight and refrigerated trailers, platform trailers, bulk tank trailers, dry and refrigerated truck bodies, structural composite panels and products, trailer aerodynamic solutions and specialty food grade and pharmaceutical equipment.
Meanwhile, “robust industrial and consumer demand across the broader manufacturing landscape has created imbalances throughout an array of manufacturing supply chains, leading to aggressive increases in the price of materials as well as further compounding labor availability across the country,” Yeagy said. “I’m not aware of any manufacturer that’s been immune to these issues.”
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