Boise Cascade (BCC) 8-KBoise Cascade Company Reports Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2023 Results

"We closed out 2023 with a fourth quarter that delivered strong financial performance, further execution of our growth strategies through organic and acquisition initiatives, and meaningful returns to our shareholders through share price gains and dividends. I remain humbled and grateful for our team as we continue to execute on strategies that position us to serve and support our vendor and customer partners into the future," stated Nate Jorgensen, CEO. "As we look forward to 2024, we are optimistic about new single-family residential construction activity and have great confidence in our people to execute our strategy independent of the market backdrop. In addition, our balance sheet remains strong, and we remain committed to our balanced approach to capital allocation and look forward to executing our reinvestment and growth projects included in our expanded capital plan."

In fourth quarter 2023, total U.S. housing starts and single-family housing starts increased 4% and 23%, respectively, compared to the same period in 2022. For the full year 2023, total and single-family housing starts decreased 9% and 6%, respectively, compared to the same period in 2022. Single-family housing starts are the key demand driver for our sales.

Comparative average net selling prices and sales volume changes for EWP and plywood are as follows:

Boise Cascade ended fourth quarter 2023 with $949.6 million of cash and cash equivalents and $395.9 million of undrawn committed bank line availability, for total available liquidity of $1,345.5 million. The Company had $445.3 million of outstanding debt at December 31, 2023.

For the year ended December 31, 2023, the Company paid $6.4 million for the repurchase of 75,678 shares of our common stock. As of December 31, 2023, approximately 1.9 million shares were available for repurchase under our existing share repurchase program.

Demand for the products we manufacture, as well as the products we purchase and distribute, is correlated with new residential construction, residential repair-and-remodeling activity and light commercial construction. Residential construction, particularly new single-family construction, is the key demand driver for the products we manufacture and distribute. Recent industry forecasts for 2024 U.S. housing starts are generally consistent with actual housing starts of 1.42 million in 2023, as reported by the U.S. Census Bureau. Despite recent declines in mortgage rates and homebuilders responding with various mechanisms to attract buyers, home affordability remains a challenge for consumers. However, with a resilient economy and elevated mortgage rates, which limits existing home inventory for sale, new residential construction is expected to remain an important source of supply for homebuyers. Within new residential construction, the recent reduction in rates and potential for future rate reductions has created optimism that single-family starts will reflect year-over-year growth. However, there is reservation that multi-family starts may pull back from recent record highs due to capital costs for developers combined with cooling rents and elevated supply. Regarding home improvement spending, the age of U.S. housing stock and elevated levels of homeowner equity have provided a favorable backdrop for repair-and-remodel spending. In 2023, year-over-year growth rates in renovation spending moderated due to economic uncertainty and higher borrowing costs. While home improvement spending is expected to remain robust compared to history, recent industry forecasts project mid-single-digit declines in 2024. Ultimately, macroeconomic factors, the level and expectations for mortgage rates, home affordability, home equity levels, and other factors will likely influence the near-term demand environment for the products we manufacture and distribute.

As a manufacturer of certain commodity products, we have sales and profitability exposure to declines in commodity product prices and rising input costs. Our distribution business purchases and resells a broad mix of products with periods of increasing prices providing the opportunity for higher sales and increased margins, while declining price environments expose us to declines in sales and profitability. Future product pricing, particularly commodity products pricing and input costs, may be volatile in response to economic uncertainties, industry operating rates, supply-related disruptions, transportation constraints or disruptions, net import and export activity, inventory levels in various distribution channels, and seasonal demand patterns.

Boise Cascade will host a webcast and conference call to discuss fourth quarter and full year earnings on Wednesday, February 21, 2024, at 11 a.m. Eastern.

The archived webcast will be available in the Investors section of Boise Cascade's website.

We refer to the terms EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA in this earnings release and the accompanying Quarterly Statistical Information as supplemental measures of our performance and liquidity that are not required by or presented in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States (GAAP). We define EBITDA as income before interest (interest expense and interest income), income taxes, and depreciation and amortization. Additionally, we disclose Adjusted EBITDA, which further adjusts EBITDA to exclude the change in fair value of interest rate swaps.

We believe EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA are meaningful measures because they present a transparent view of our recurring operating performance and allow management to readily view operating trends, perform analytical comparisons, and identify strategies to improve operating performance. We also believe EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA are useful to investors because they provide a means to evaluate the operating performance of our segments and our Company on an ongoing basis using criteria that are used by our management and because they are frequently used by investors and other interested parties when comparing companies in our industry that have different financing and capital structures and/or tax rates. EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA, however, are not measures of our liquidity or financial performance under GAAP and should not be considered as alternatives to net income, income from operations, or any other performance measure derived in accordance with GAAP or as alternatives to cash flow from operating activities as a measure of our liquidity. The use of EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA instead of net income or segment income have limitations as analytical tools, including: the inability to determine profitability; the exclusion of interest expense, interest income, and associated significant cash requirements; and the exclusion of depreciation and amortization, which represent unavoidable operating costs. Management compensates for these limitations by relying on our GAAP results. Our measures of EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA are not necessarily comparable to other similarly titled captions of other companies due to potential inconsistencies in the methods of calculation.