Boise Cascade Company Reports Second Quarter 2023 Results

Boise Cascade Company ("Boise Cascade," the "Company," "we," or "our") (NYSE: BCC) today reported net income of $146.3 million, or $3.67 per share, on sales of $1.8 billion for the second quarter ended June 30, 2023, compared with net income of $218.1 million, or $5.49 per share, on sales of $2.3 billion for the second quarter ended June 30, 2022.

"Both businesses again delivered solid financial performance during the second quarter as we continued to execute our integrated business model in support of our customer and supplier partners. Our associates' consistent focus, grit, and hard work remain key to driving our operating and financial results," stated Nate Jorgensen, CEO. "As we close out the first half of 2023, we are encouraged by the resiliency of market demand despite ongoing economic uncertainties, and our long-term view of the strength of residential construction remains. The focus on working capital performance is a priority as the channel looks to manage inventory risk and reward, and we are uniquely positioned on a national scale to deliver the service levels in support of those efforts. Lastly, our balance sheet remains well positioned for continued investment in our associates, key strategies and growth initiatives in our distribution and EWP businesses, and further shareholder returns."

Second Quarter 2023 Highlights

In second quarter 2023, total U.S. housing starts and single-family housing starts decreased 11% and 14%, respectively, compared to the same period in 2022. On a year-to-date basis through June 2023, total housing starts decreased 15%, driven by a decrease in single-family housing starts of 21% compared to the same period in 2022. Single-family housing starts are the key demand driver for our sales.

Wood Products

Wood Products' sales, including sales to Building Materials Distribution (BMD), decreased $5.7 million, or 1%, to $530.3 million for the three months ended June 30, 2023, from $536.0 million for the three months ended June 30, 2022. The decrease in sales was driven by lower plywood sales prices and lower I-joists sales volumes. These decreases were offset partially by higher plywood sales volumes, higher sales prices for LVL and I-joists (collectively referred to as EWP), and higher LVL sales volumes.

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

Wood Products' segment income decreased $50.1 million to $104.0 million for the three months ended June 30, 2023, from $154.1 million for the three months ended June 30, 2022. The decrease in segment income was due primarily to lower plywood sales prices. In addition, segment income was negatively impacted by an increase in depreciation and amortization expense due to the acquisition of two plywood facilities on July 25, 2022. These decreases in segment income were offset partially by higher plywood sales volumes, higher EWP sales prices, as well as lower wood fiber costs.

Building Materials Distribution

BMD's sales decreased $494.7 million, or 23%, to $1,636.5 million for the three months ended June 30, 2023, from $2,131.2 million for the three months ended June 30, 2022. Compared with the same quarter in the prior year, the overall decrease in sales was driven by sales price and sales volume decreases of 22% and 1%, respectively. By product line, commodity sales decreased 36%, general line product sales decreased 8%, and EWP sales (substantially all of which are sourced through our Wood Products segment) decreased 21%.

BMD segment income decreased $55.7 million to $98.6 million for the three months ended June 30, 2023, from $154.3 million in the comparative prior year quarter. The decline in segment income was driven by a gross margin decrease of $49.8 million, resulting from lower margins on EWP and general line products, offset partially by margin improvements on commodity products. In addition, selling and distribution expenses increased $3.9 million.

Balance Sheet and Liquidity

Boise Cascade ended second quarter 2023 with $1,080.9 million of cash and cash equivalents and $395.9 million of undrawn committed bank line availability, for total available liquidity of $1,476.8 million. The Company had $444.8 million of outstanding debt at June 30, 2023.

We expect capital expenditures in 2023 to total approximately $120 million to $140 million. Our 2023 capital expenditures range includes funding for greenfield distribution centers in South Carolina and Texas, projects at our mills in the southeast to expand our EWP capacity, and the purchase of property to house an additional door shop assembly operation in Kansas City, Missouri. This level of capital expenditures could increase or decrease as a result of several factors, including acquisitions, efforts to further accelerate organic growth, exercise of lease purchase options, our financial results, future economic conditions, availability of engineering and construction resources, and timing and availability of equipment purchases.

Dividends

On July 27, 2023, our board of directors declared a quarterly dividend of $0.20 per share on our common stock, payable on September 15, 2023, to stockholders of record on September 1, 2023.

Future dividend declarations, including amount per share, record date and payment date, will be made at the discretion of our board of directors and will depend upon, among other things, legal capital requirements and surplus, our future operations and earnings, general financial condition, material cash requirements, restrictions imposed by our asset-based credit facility and the indenture governing our senior notes, applicable laws, and other factors that our board of directors may deem relevant.

Outlook

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. U.S. housing starts in June 2023 were approximately 1.4 million on a seasonally adjusted annual rate basis, as reported by the U.S. Census Bureau. However, home affordability remains a challenge for consumers, and the Federal Reserve's ongoing actions in response to inflationary data and what impacts these actions have on future mortgage rates and the broader economy will influence the near-term demand environment. As such, the outlook for the back half of 2023 remains uncertain and is reflected in various industry forecasts for 2023 U.S. housing starts that generally range from 1.3 million to 1.4 million units, compared with actual housing starts of 1.55 million in 2022, as reported by the U.S. Census Bureau. 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. However, industry forecasts project continued moderation of year-over-year growth in renovation spending, and economic uncertainty may also negatively impact homeowners' further investment in their residences.

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 commodity 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 commodity product pricing and commodity input costs may be volatile in response to economic uncertainties, industry operating rates, transportation constraints or disruptions, net import and export activity, inventory levels in various distribution channels, and seasonal demand patterns. In addition, EWP volumes will continue to be influenced by demand for new residential construction, particularly single-family housing starts, and we expect modest EWP price erosion in the third quarter.

About Boise Cascade

Boise Cascade Company is one of the largest producers of engineered wood products and plywood in North America and a leading U.S. wholesale distributor of building products. For more information, please visit the Company's website at www.bc.com.

Webcast and Conference Call

Boise Cascade will host a webcast and conference call to discuss second quarter earnings on Tuesday, August 1, 2023, at 11 a.m. Eastern.

To join the webcast, go to the Investors section of our website at www.bc.com/investors and select the Event Calendar link. Analysts and investors who wish to ask questions during the Q&A session can register for the call here.

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

Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures

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 (loss) 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 (loss), income (loss) 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 (loss) or segment income (loss) 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.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release includes statements about our expectations of future operational and financial performance that are forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, including, but not limited to, statements regarding our outlook. Statements preceded or followed by, or that otherwise include, the words "believes," "expects," "anticipates," "intends," "project," "estimates," "plans," "forecast," "is likely to," and similar expressions or future or conditional verbs such as "will," "may," "would," "should," and "could" are generally forward-looking in nature and not historical facts. Such statements are based upon the current beliefs and expectations of our management and are subject to significant risks and uncertainties. The accuracy of such statements is subject to a number of risks, uncertainties, and assumptions that could cause our actual results to differ materially from those projected, including, but not limited to, prices for building products, changes in the competitive position of our products, commodity input costs, the effect of general economic conditions, mortgage rates and availability, housing demand, housing vacancy rates, governmental regulations, unforeseen production disruptions, as well as natural disasters. These and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from such forward-looking statements are discussed in greater detail in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this press release. We undertake no obligation to revise them in light of new information. Finally, we undertake no obligation to review or confirm analyst expectations or estimates that might be derived from this release.