SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., Feb. 13, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Taylor Morrison Home Corporation (NYSE: TMHC) today reported fiscal year 2018 total revenue of over $4.2 billion and diluted earnings per share of $1.83, or $2.65 when adjusted to exclude the impact from unusual items.

Full Year 2018 Highlights:

• Home closings were 8,760, a 9% increase over the prior year
• Total revenue was $4.2 billion, an almost 9% increase over the prior year
• Net sales orders were 8,400 and sales per outlet were 2.3
• Home closings gross margin, inclusive of capitalized interest, was 17.1%
• Adjusted home closings gross margin, inclusive of capitalized interest, was 18.2%
• Net income was $210 million and net income adjusted to exclude unusual items was $306 million

"We continue to believe that the current new home sales environment has best been described as a break in momentum as the industry finds its new normal.  The conditions the industry experienced during the back half of 2018 in regard to interest rates, affordability and the resulting press coverage, led many potential buyers that had been in the market to take a wait and see approach.  With that said, there continues to be plenty of macro data points that give us confidence in the near-term outlook.  Unemployment and job creation are still at historically very healthy levels, incomes continue to grow, many of the major markets in the U.S. continue to have limited housing supply and the industry continues to be under-built based on historical averages," said Chairman and CEO, Sheryl Palmer.

"We delivered on all of our strategic priorities we laid out at the beginning of 2018, including pursuing smart, strategic growth, producing enhanced operational excellence and differentiating our customer experience.  We grew in a smart and strategic way through the acquisition of AV Homes.  We improved our operations through CRM enhancements, procurement initiatives and centralizing key functions where it made sense, like accounting and purchasing.  And our goal of delivering a more differentiated customer experience was supported through crowdsourcing campaigns and devoting more focus, time and resources to customer research.  Each of these priorities carries with it a common theme of putting Taylor Morrison in a position for future success, which was most recently recognized by LifeStory Research naming us America's Most Trusted Home Builder for the fourth year in a row." 

Palmer also added, "It's been about four months since we closed the AV acquisition and I'm happy to report that we are on track with our integration plan – and in some areas, well ahead of schedule.  Based on our work to-date, we can comfortably take the run rate synergy estimate up to $40 million, $10 million more than originally communicated."

"For 2018, net income on a GAAP basis was $210 million and diluted earnings per share was $1.83.  Home closings gross margin, inclusive of capitalized interest, was 17.1 percent," said Dave Cone, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.  "When the unusual items that we faced in 2018 are excluded, net income would be $306 million and adjusted diluted earnings per share would be $2.65.  Further, adjusted home closings gross margin, inclusive of capitalized interest, would be 18.2 percent."

The Company recognized $96 million of unusual items in net income, consisting of expenses from the AV acquisition, costs associated with the Canadian unwind and corporate reorganization, land charges and an increase in reserves related to remediating a warranty issue.  Reconciliations of our non-GAAP financial measures are included with this release.       

"Income taxes were $63 million for the year, representing an effective tax rate of 23 percent.  Our net homebuilding debt to capitalization ratio was 41.9 percent.  This is an increase from where we had been the last few quarters due to the acquisition of AV, but we anticipate working this back to well under 40% as we go through 2019," added Cone.

Homebuilding inventories were $4.0 billion at the end of the quarter, including 6,014 homes in inventory, compared to 4,351 homes in inventory at the end of the prior year.  Homes in inventory at the end of the quarter consisted of 3,213 sold units, 486 model homes and 2,315 inventory units, of which 614 were finished. 

The Company ended the year with $330 million in cash. Since the start of the fourth quarter 2018 through February 11, 2019, $196 million was spent repurchasing 11.7 million shares at an average stock price of $16.72.  Since the closing of the AV transaction, the Company has reduced its share count by 10%.  This exceeds the 9.0 million shares issued in the AV acquisition by 30%.  As of December 31, 2018, Taylor Morrison owned or controlled approximately 57,000 lots, representing 5.5 years of supply, and is focused on securing land for 2020 and beyond. 

First Quarter 2019 Business Outlook

First Quarter 2019:

• Average active community count is expected to be approximately 350 to 360
• Home closings are expected to be about 1,800 to 1,900
• Home closings gross margin, inclusive of capitalized interest and purchase accounting, is expected to be in the mid 17 percent range
• SG&A as a percentage of homebuilding revenue is expected to be in the low to mid 12 percent range
• Effective tax rate is expected to be about 25 percent
• Diluted share count is expected to be about 112 million

Earnings Webcast

A public webcast to discuss the fourth quarter 2018 earnings will be held later today at 8:30 a.m. Eastern time. The participant dial-in is 1 (855) 470-8731 and the passcode is 7486714. More information can be found on the Company's investor relations website at investors.taylormorrison.com. A webcast replay will also be available on the site later today and will be available for one year from the date of the original earnings call.

About Taylor Morrison

Taylor Morrison Home Corporation (NYSE: TMHC) is a leading national homebuilder and developer that has been recognized as the 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019 America's Most Trusted® Home Builder by Lifestory Research. Based in Scottsdale, Arizona we operate under two well-established brands, Taylor Morrison and Darling Homes. We serve a wide array of consumer groups from coast to coast, including first-time, move-up, luxury, and 55 plus buyers. In Texas, Darling Homes builds communities with a focus on individuality and custom detail while delivering on the Taylor Morrison standard of excellence.

For more information about Taylor Morrison and Darling Homes please visit www.taylormorrison.com or www.darlinghomes.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This earnings summary includes "forward-looking statements." These statements are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause our actual results, performance, prospects or opportunities, as well as those of the markets we serve or intend to serve, to differ materially from those expressed in, or implied by, these statements. You can identify these statements by the fact that they do not relate to matters of a strictly factual or historical nature and generally discuss or relate to forecasts, estimates or other expectations regarding future events. Generally, the words "believe," "expect," "intend," "estimate," "anticipate," "project," "may," "can," "could," "might," "will" and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements, including statements related to expected operating and performing results, planned transactions, planned objectives of management, future developments or conditions in the industries in which we participate and other trends, developments and uncertainties that may affect our business in the future.

Such risks, uncertainties and other factors include, among other things: changes in general and local economic conditions (including as a result of recent extreme weather conditions); slowdowns or severe downturns in the housing market; homebuyers' ability to obtain suitable financing; increases in interest rates, taxes or government fees; shortages in, disruptions of and cost of labor; competition in our industry; any increase in unemployment or underemployment; inflation or deflation; the seasonality of our business; our ability to obtain additional performance, payment and completion surety bonds and letters of credit; higher cancellation rates; significant home warranty and construction defect claims; our reliance on subcontractors; failure to manage land acquisitions, inventory and development and construction processes; availability of land and lots; decreases in the market value of our land inventory; new or changes in government regulations and legal challenges; our compliance with environmental laws; our ability to sell mortgages we originate and claims on loans sold to third parties; governmental regulation applicable to our mortgage operations and title services business; the loss of any of our important commercial relationships; our ability to use deferred tax assets; raw materials and building supply shortages and price fluctuations; our concentration of significant operations in certain geographic areas; risks associated with our unconsolidated joint venture arrangements; information technology failures and data security breaches; costs to engage in and the success of future growth or expansion of our operations or acquisitions or disposals of businesses; costs associated with our defined benefit and defined contribution pension schemes; damages associated with any major health and safety incident; our ownership, leasing or occupation of land and the use of hazardous materials; material losses in excess of insurance limits; existing or future litigation, arbitration or other claims; negative publicity or poor relations with the residents of our communities; failure to recruit, retain and develop highly skilled, competent people; utility and resource shortages or rate fluctuations; constriction of the capital markets; risks related to our debt and the agreements governing such debt; our ability to access the capital markets; the inherent uncertainty associated with financial or other projections; and risks related to the integration of Taylor Morrison and AV Homes and the ability to recognize the anticipated benefits from the combination of Taylor Morrison and AV Homes. In addition, other such risks and uncertainties may be found in our most recent annual report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as such factors may be updated from time to time in our periodic filings with the SEC. We undertake no duty to update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or changes in our expectations, except as required by applicable law.

CONTACT: Investor Relations
Taylor Morrison Home Corporation
(480) 734-2060
[email protected]

Reconciliation of Non-GAAP Financial Measures
The following tables set forth reconciliations of: (i) EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA to net income before allocation to non-controlling interests, (ii) adjusted income before income taxes, (iii) net homebuilding debt to total capitalization ratio, (iv) home closings gross margin and adjusted home closings gross margin and (v) adjusted net income and adjusted earnings per share to net income available to the Company.

Adjusted EBITDA is a non-GAAP financial measure that measures performance by adjusting net income to exclude interest amortized to cost of sales and interest income, net, income taxes, depreciation and amortization, non-cash compensation expense and loss on extinguishment of debt, if any.  Adjusted income before income taxes is a non-GAAP financial measure that reflects our income before income taxes excluding the impact of significant and unusual transactions and transaction and corporate reorganization expenses related to our acquisition of AV Homes and our internal corporate reorganization.  Net homebuilding debt to capitalization is a non-GAAP financial measure we calculate by dividing (i) total debt, less unamortized debt issuance costs and mortgage warehouse borrowings, net of unrestricted cash and cash equivalents, by (ii) total capitalization (the sum of net homebuilding debt and total stockholders' equity).  Adjusted home closings gross margin is a non-GAAP financial measure calculated based on GAAP home closings gross margin (which is inclusive of capitalized interest), excluding impairments (if any), warranty charges (if any) and purchase accounting adjustments. Adjusted net income and adjusted earnings per share are non-GAAP financial measures that reflect the net income available to the Company excluding the impact of: significant and unusual transactions and transaction and corporate reorganization expenses and the tax impact due to such items; the tax reform impact due to the revaluation of deferred assets and liabilities and due to the mandatory deemed repatriation of foreign earnings; and resulting adjustments to non-controlling interest.

Management uses these non-GAAP financial measures to evaluate our performance on a consolidated basis, as well as the performance of our regions, and to set targets for performance-based compensation.  We also use the ratio of net homebuilding debt to total capitalization as an indicator of overall leverage and to evaluate our performance against other companies in the homebuilding industry.  In the future, we may include additional adjustments in the above described non-GAAP financial measures to the extent we deem them appropriate and useful to management and investors.

We believe adjusted EBITDA provides useful information to investors regarding our results of operations because it allows investors to evaluate our performance without the effects of various items we do not believe are characteristic of our ongoing operations or performance and because it assists both investors and management in analyzing and benchmarking the performance and value of our business.  Adjusted EBITDA also provides an indicator of general economic performance that is not affected by fluctuations in interest rates or effective tax rates, levels of depreciation or amortization, or unusual items.  Because we use the ratio of net homebuilding debt to total capitalization to evaluate our performance against other companies in the homebuilding industry, we believe this measure is also relevant and useful to investors for that reason.  We believe that adjusted home closings gross margin is useful to investors because it allows investors to evaluate the performance of our homebuilding operations without the varying effects of impairment charges, warranty charges and purchase accounting adjustments. We believe that adjusted income before income taxes, adjusted net income and adjusted earnings per share are useful for investors in order to allow them to evaluate our operations without the effects of various items we do not believe are characteristic of our ongoing operations or performance and also because each assists both investors and management in analyzing and benchmarking the performance and value of our business.

These non-GAAP financial measures should be considered in addition to, rather than as a substitute for, the comparable U.S. GAAP financial measures of our operating performance or liquidity. Although other companies in the homebuilding industry may report similar information, their definitions may differ. We urge investors to understand the methods used by other companies to calculate similarly-titled non-GAAP financial measures before comparing their measures to ours.

SOURCE Taylor Morrison