Installed Building Products, Inc. (NYSE:IBP) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Jeff Edwards: And I would say despite there being maybe some future clouds on the rise as it relates to certain market segments being deteriorating to some begets a healthy market overall. I mean let’s face it, the builders are doing well. We’re doing well. And I mean I can also say for sure that we don’t have a lot of costs that are coming down. So if we don’t have costs coming down, it’s pretty tough to sit there and just take it on the chin in terms of pricing in a healthy environment.

Phil Ng: Okay. Appreciate the color. Thank you.

Operator: Our next question comes from Jeffrey Stevenson with Loop Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question.

Jeffrey Stevenson: Hi, thanks for taking my questions today. And congrats on the nice quarter. So regarding insulation pricing, it sounds like any potential realization from the car manufacturer increases will be delayed until the late fourth quarter at the earliest. But if the increase does gain modest traction, are you confident that you’d be able to pass along incremental pricing to your builder customers if needed?

Michael Miller: Historically, we have been able to and particularly in an environment which we believe will exist in ‘24, where there is going to be growth on the single-family side. And historically, that has been a very good operating environment for us to make sure that we’re getting paid a fair value for our services based on the cost of materials, the cost of labor. I mean, while we’ve talked a lot about the performance of our team and how things have been benign and fairly stable. The reality is, is that labor continues to be very tight across the industry. And there is a value price paid for that labor. And as Jeff just said, I mean, our costs aren’t going down and if our costs are going up, we need to work with our customers to make sure there is a fair balance there.

Jeffrey Stevenson: Okay, that’s makes sense. And then a second question is just on how you’re thinking about share repurchases moving forward. In the past, you’ve taken advantage of market volatility and wondered the fact it possibly it’d be on the table in the future?

Michael Miller: Absolutely. As you know, we’ve been opportunistic with our share repurchases, and we are in an incredibly strong capital position right now. This business generates a lot of free cash flow, which is fantastic. And we see as the number one way we can return capital to shareholders is through share repurchases.

Jeffrey Stevenson: Great. Thank you.

Operator: Our next question comes from Ken Zener with Seaport Research Partners. Please proceed with your question.

Ken Zener: Good morning, everybody. Well, I guess, gross margin, say, it’s good to be choosy. I wonder it’s obviously good not to buy a product at Home Depot as well. So could you kind of talk about – I realize there is a lot of moving parts here, but could you kind of isolate the benefit you’re having from normalization of price, which helps you, but also in terms of the bid you’ve made, but also the fact that perhaps your volume relationship with the manufacturers is also helping you. Is there a way to kind of focus on that delta alone of the input costs, the material?

Michael Miller: I think clearly, as you pointed out, not having to buy certain materials out of distribution is a sale in obviously. And it was a fairly significant headwind to the business, as we pointed out last year and even in the back half of ‘21. But we have not quantified specifically that on these calls.

Ken Zener: Alright. So looking at the past and thinking about the future, one of your – not your largest customer reported recently. And they basically had volumes closing kind of flattish, right? Nothing too crazy, but it really missed a huge in terms of their start activity, which was, call it, 25,000 ton to 13,000 back up to like 22,000, 23,000 units. That’s a big deal which you guys had to navigate. So two things. The cadence – and that same customer has kind of talked about grad oil increases and starts, although avoiding seasonality. So in the past, that large customer really was meaningfully part of the market, you guys had attributed price mix issues associated with them because of the lower mix associated with them.