SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., Feb. 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Taylor Morrison Home Corporation (NYSE: TMHC) today reported adjusted diluted earnings per share of $2.98 and GAAP diluted earnings per share of $2.35.

Fiscal Year 2019 Highlights:

• Net sales orders were 10,517, a 25 percent increase over the prior year
• Average monthly sales pace per community was 2.5, compared to 2.3 for 2018
• Home closings were 9,964, an almost 14 percent increase over the prior year
• Total revenue was $4.8 billion, a 13 percent increase over the prior year
• Home closings gross margin adjusted for unusual items was 18.2 percent, while GAAP home closings gross margin was 17.0 percent

"To say that 2019 was a pivotal year in Taylor Morrison's history would be an understatement," said Sheryl Palmer, Chairman and CEO of Taylor Morrison. "We surpassed 10,000 sales orders for the first time, marking a significant milestone for us, and the sales momentum we saw build in 2019 has continued into 2020."

The Company finished Q4 with sales orders of 2,552, which was a 42 percent increase from the prior year quarter.  This represented a sales pace per community for the quarter of 2.6, which was tied with Q2 as the highest pace for the year.  Sales orders for fiscal year 2019 were 10,517, which represented a sales pace per community of 2.5 for the year.  "The strength in sales orders during the fourth quarter was consistent across all geographies and consumer groups led by entry-level, first move-up and second move-up each seeing at least a 50 percent increase," said Palmer.  "We're thrilled to see the sales success continuing into 2020, with a 46 percent growth in orders and a sales pace of more than 3.0 for January."

"We delivered 9,964 closings in 2019, an almost 14 percent increase over our results for the prior year and in-line with our most recent guidance," added Palmer.  "I'm proud of the teams' ability to deliver such strong sales and closings amidst a transformational acquisition in the works."         

The Company stated that they expect the acquisition of William Lyon Homes to close this week. "To support our continued growth we must think differently, operate differently and use our resources differently," added Palmer. "Effective upon closing, we've announced a new organizational structure that will provide greater line of sight into our corporate functions and help us streamline the regional areas given the added scale from William Lyon. Our regional structure will move from three to five and be led by Area Presidents from both Taylor Morrison and William Lyon. Through thoughtful and deliberate efforts, we've been able to outline an extremely strong combined business and assure that we'll have the best organizational structure and portfolio in place for a positive future."

"For the year, home closings gross margin was 18.2 percent when adjusted for the impact of unusual items, while GAAP home closings gross margin was 17.0 percent," said Dave Cone, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.  "We experienced certain unusual items during the quarter that impacted many of our key metrics. The impact to earnings before taxes included almost $50 million for an increase in our reserve related to remediating a warranty issue that impacted our Central region, $13 million for the write-off related to our Chicago exit, almost $11 million for transaction expenses related to both AV Homes and William Lyon Homes, $9 million for inventory impairments and almost $6 million related to the loss on extinguishment of debt due to the refinancing transactions earlier in the year. With all of this behind us, we're confident in how this positions the business and strengthens the balance sheet for the future."

Homebuilding inventories were nearly $4.0 billion at the end of the year, including 5,728 homes in inventory, compared to 6,014 homes in inventory at the end of the prior year.  Homes in inventory at the end of the quarter consisted of 3,450 sold units, 504 model homes and 1,774 inventory units, of which 361 were finished.  The Company ended the year with 4,711 units in backlog, a year-over-year increase of 13 percent, with a sales value of approximately $2.3 billion.

The Company finished the year with $326 million in unrestricted cash and a net homebuilding debt to capitalization ratio of 37.2 percent.  As of December 31, 2019, Taylor Morrison owned or controlled approximately 54,000 lots, representing 5.4 years of supply based on a trailing twelve months of closings and the Company is focused on securing land for 2021 and beyond.

Preliminary fourth quarter 2019 results for William Lyon included sales orders of 802 and home closings of 1,294.  Backlog at the end of the year included 876 units with a sales value of $382 million.

First Quarter 2020 Business Outlook

• Average active community count is expected to be between 320 and 330
• Home closings are expected to be between 2,100 and 2,200
• GAAP home closings gross margin is expected to be about 18 percent
• SG&A as a percentage of home closings revenue is expected to be in the mid 11 percent range
• Effective tax rate is expected to be about 23.5 percent

"The 2020 year should prove exciting with the closing and integration of William Lyon, which will have a significant impact on our operating and financial metrics," said Cone.  "As we mentioned in the William Lyon acquisition announcement in November of last year, we will be in a position to provide annual guidance on the combined business during our first quarter call in late April."

Earnings Webcast

A public webcast to discuss the fourth quarter 2019 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 7197299. 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, 2019 and 2020 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; higher cancellation rates of existing agreements of sale; 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; 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 at competitive prices; decreases in the market value of our land inventory; new or changing government regulations and legal challenges; our compliance with environmental laws and regulations regarding climate change; our ability to sell mortgages we originate and claims on loans sold to third parties; governmental regulation applicable to our financial services 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 substantial debt and the agreements governing such debt, including restrictive covenants contained in such agreements; our ability to access the capital markets; the inherent uncertainty associated with financial or other projections; the risks associated with maintaining effective internal controls over financial reporting; and risks related to the integration of William Lyon Homes and the ability to recognize the anticipated benefits from the combination of Taylor Morrison and William Lyon 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) adjusted income before income taxes, (ii) EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA to net income before allocation to non-controlling interests, (iii) adjusted net income and adjusted earnings per share, (iv) net homebuilding debt to total capitalization ratio, (v) home closings gross margin and adjusted home closings gross margin, (vi) adjusted SG&A, and (vii) income before income taxes margin and adjusted income before income taxes margin.

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, which for the three and twelve months ended December 31, 2019 included impairments, warranty expense, litigation expenses for such warranty expense, loss on extinguishment of debt, and write-off of expenses related to the divestiture of certain assets, and for the three and twelve months ended December 31, 2018 included impairments and warranty expenses, as well as, in each period, transaction and corporate reorganization expenses.  EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA are non-GAAP financial measures that measure performance by adjusting net income before allocation to non-controlling interests to exclude interest amortized to cost of sales and interest income, net, income taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA), and non-cash compensation expense, if any, significant and unusual transactions, as well as, in each period, transaction and corporate reorganization expenses and loss on extinguishment of debt (Adjusted EBITDA).  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, which for the three and twelve months ended December 31, 2019 included impairments, warranty expense, litigation expenses for such warranty expense, loss on extinguishment of debt, and write-off of expenses related to the divestiture of certain assets, and for the three and twelve months ended December 31, 2018 included impairments and warranty expenses, as well as, in each period, transaction and corporate reorganization expenses and the tax impact due to such items.  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 and warranty charges.  Adjusted SG&A is a non-GAAP measure that reflects our GAAP SG&A excluding the impact of significant and unusual transactions, which for the three and twelve months ended December 31, 2019 included litigation expenses for the warranty expense and write-off expenses related to the divestiture of certain assets, and for the three and twelve months ended December 31, 2018 included litigation expenses for the warranty expense.

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 that adjusted income before income taxes, adjusted net income and adjusted earnings per share, adjusted SG&A, as well as EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA, 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 such metrics assist 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 inventory impairment charges and warranty charges.

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