Rush Enterprises, Inc. (NASDAQ:RUSHA) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

So, that helps offset, but it’s at a cost too, okay? It’s not as high a margin business, is that small book business. But we’ve had a lot of success around it. And we’ll continue to focus on that because that should be a steadier piece going forward. So, we’ll just have to see how next year plays out. It’s a little bit early. But we still feel good — pretty good about our business model, but it’s going to be a tougher year. You might then think it is — okay? But I think you check what we’ve done with the company over the last few years. Let’s look at the results in the last three years. That’s all I’m going to tell you and we believe very strongly in the results going forward even with 2024 not being as good as 2023 and probably not as good as 2025 or 2026, but it’s not going to be terrible, okay?

Andrew Obin: So, the last question for me, and I think you set it up for me, and I bet you know the question I’m going to ask. You keep delivering earnings well ahead of consensus, even as things are slowing. I think if you look at the fourth quarter, your message seems you coming up — coming out versus consensus, excellent SG&A control, you’re doing everything you’re supposed to do. You know that the next year is not going to be good, you also know what 2025 and 2026 is going to look like, you know what the company is going to deliver. What’s the Board’s thinking about sort of stepping up share buyback in this environment, particularly on a day like today when stock is down 8% on very solid numbers.

Rusty Rush: Good question, right? I just finished the Board meeting, yesterday afternoon in, fact, Andrew. We look at it as a great value. We would have been doing what we’ve been doing. We stepped it up 50% this year. We’re going to return. We’ve got a pretty detail what we want to do and we would typically — we’ve said and stated, we want to return 35% to 40% in shareholder return between a combination of dividend and stock buyback. That said — free cash flow, excuse me. That said, we’re going to return 55% this year, okay? I don’t see us returning whatever that FCS is next year, I don’t see us returning much more than 55%. I think you like to build in a cushion, I want to make sure I’ve got some money in case of M&A comes along.

You know, I don’t have any great M&A right now, but I have a feeling with the downturn typically, some M&A might show up, right? And so we want to be positioned to be able to do everything. We’re not going backwards, okay. We’re going to spend the whole $150 million this year, and I would anticipate us — we’ll make that decision. We have a call by the November the 28 board of call if you want to know the truth to make that determination as we’re getting a little further on another few weeks never helps. He’s trying to look into crystal ball. So we’ve got a board call set up yesterday afternoon when they left for November 28 announced for our December 1, because that’s when we announced every year is December 1 is what our buyback will be. So stay tuned about that.

Andrew Obin: Well, you know what I feel about it. Great quarter, thanks a lot.

Rusty Rush: You bet. I know Andrew. There’s a balancing act, as I said, possibly some M&A might show up and I want to make sure I’m prepared and I don’t want to take debt. And we don’t have to, we’ve got, but we just want to be able to take care of everything we need to while still we believe it is the best investment we can make. I’m totally in agreement with you.

Operator: Thank you. [Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from the line of Justin Long with Stephens. Your line is now open.

Justin Long: Thanks, and good morning.

Rusty Rush: Well, good morning, Justin.