But I will tell you, we’re very pleased that more of these deals are check in the box for us. They fit our profile. We can deploy more capital. They have good teams. They’re in great markets. And we look forward to more acquisitions like that going forward.
Steven Ramsey: Okay. Helpful. And then, on specialty equipment, you’ve clearly done very well without that being a large part of your equipment portfolio. But I assume it’s maybe still on the strategic radar. Could you update us on how you’re thinking about specialty equipment as part of the H&E fleet over time?
Bradley Barber: Sure. I’m going to let John respond to that.
John Engquist: Yes, Steven. So, obviously, specialty is on our radar and is part of our plan. We’re currently executing today the strategy to roll out a pump and power division. As we sit here today, we ended the year with 10 locations. Most of these are shared facilities with existing operations. But we have grown that fleet from essentially nothing to a meaningful piece of the business in a relatively short amount of time. As we’re looking forward, we’re going to continue to add locations on an annual basis. And we think there’s a really nice opportunity for specialty in our future.
Bradley Barber: Yes. Steven, let me add. The 10 locations John is referring to, this is not embedded in the 12 to 15 guidance or in the 14 that we opened last year. We also stated that we’re just taking this really practical approach. We’re using shared facilities, separate teams, separate assets. It’s a branch within a branch, if you will. So it’s nice. We’re bringing on assets and high-quality people and deploying them. This organic growth is not the fastest way to grow your business, but it’s certainly safe and it’s certainly profitable. And it’s no different with specialty than it is with the 14 warm starts or the 34, I think, we’ve opened in the last couple of years.
Steven Ramsey: Okay. That’s helpful. Thank you, guys.
Bradley Barber: Thank you.
Operator: The next question comes from [Jamie Wilen] (ph) with Wilen Management. Please go ahead.
Unidentified Analyst: Yes. Good to see that your demand is growing both for national accounts and local markets. Can you tell us what percentage of your business is national accounts? What was it in 2023 and what would you expect it to be in 2024?
Bradley Barber: Thank you for the question. We do not disclose our ratios of a national account or a large account or a single source, but the thing I’m very comfortable giving you is that our large customer base continues to grow, and we’re happy about that. Those larger customers generally characterize greater stability, larger volumes of equipment for longer periods of time, notwithstanding mega projects, right? So aside from mega projects, that’s been a focus of ours. But unfortunately, we do not disclose those ratios.
Unidentified Analyst: Okay. Given the free cash flow you expect to achieve in the current fiscal year, what are your thoughts on a stock buyback moving forward?
Bradley Barber: Yes. A stock buyback is always a potential. We’ve talked about capital allocation. We consistently meet both our finance committee and, of course, our full Board and make these considerations. But what we’re focused on is looking for acquisition opportunities and further growing H&E Equipment Services. So, I wouldn’t want to lead anyone to a likelihood of a stock buyback. What’s 100% likely is, we continue to pay our dividend. We continue to step out these 15-ish locations a year. We continue to see same-store growth as we deploy capital to the existing previously matured locations. And we are aggressively looking for acquisitions that fit the profile we need. Those are where you’re going to more likely see us deploy capital. Never going to rule out a stock buyback, but right now we’re in growth mode.
Unidentified Analyst: Excellent. And lastly, your fleet age is obviously the youngest in the industry. But is your target level for what your fleet age would be to optimize the profitability of the business?
Bradley Barber: Of course, we have levels within fleet management with product mix. What I can tell you is our fleet age is well below an optimum age. We were just managing a steady state of business. You’ve got your numerator and denominator. When you grow at the levels we have been growing our rental fleet, it pushes your fleet age down. So, we’re happy about that. That’s just a pent-up opportunity for us to age it further if we need to or elect to. But if you were asking in a normal cycle when we’ve matured in scale where we would be, it certainly could be much older than where we are today. As Leslie and I both pointed out, I think the industry average is close to 50 months, and we’re under 40. So we’re in a great position there.
Unidentified Analyst: Okay. Is part of the decline, the number of new branches you’re opening up?
Bradley Barber: The decline in fleet age or what decline [indiscernible]?
Unidentified Analyst: In fleet age.
Bradley Barber: That’s a part of it. It’s fleet rotation, it’s fleet replacement, it’s growth at same stores. And certainly we’ve deployed primarily brand-new product to these locations. I mean, we may move some existing assets, but when your utilization is running as high as ours does on an annual basis, we’re deploying primarily new capital to these locations.
Unidentified Analyst: Excellent. Nice job, fellas.
Bradley Barber: Thank you.
Operator: [Operator Instructions] The next question comes from Seth Weber with Wells Fargo. Please go ahead.
