Arcosa Inc Stock price
Compare with Peer Group
📊 Peer Group
📈 What is it?
The peer group consists of the companies with the most similar business model. They serve as a benchmark for putting a stock into context.
🧮 How is it selected?
Based on similarity of business model, meaning companies from the same industry with comparable products and a similar customer base. That's the only way to compare apples to apples.
🏛️ Why does it matter?
Whether a stock is cheap or expensive is best judged by comparison. A P/E of 18 or an EV/FCF of 20 can look cheap or expensive depending on the yardstick. The peer group gives you the most accurate one: companies with a similar business model that operate under the same conditions.
🎯 What does it mean for investors?
When a metric sits below the peer average, the stock is valued more cheaply relative to its competitors, and above the average more expensively. A discount to the peer group can be an opportunity, but it can also have a reason (for example lower growth). The comparison is a starting point, not a verdict.
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Key metrics
📘 Market Capitalization
📈 What is it?
Market capitalization shows how much a company is currently worth on the stock market.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
It helps classify companies by size (Large, Mid, Small Cap) and indicates their market presence and relative stability.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Large-cap companies tend to be more stable, often pay dividends, but may grow more slowly.
- Smaller firms may offer higher growth potential but come with more volatility.
- Market capitalization is a useful indicator of company size — but not a measure of whether a stock is undervalued or overvalued.
📘 Enterprise Value (EV)
📈 What is it?
Enterprise Value represents the total cost to acquire a company — including its debt and excluding its cash reserves.
🧮 How is it calculated?
(= Market Cap + Net Debt)
🏛️ Why is it important?
EV gives a more complete picture of a company's value than market cap alone and is used in key valuation ratios like EV/FCF or EV/Sales.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Enterprise Value shows the true cost of buying a company, including all financial obligations.
- It is more accurate than just looking at market cap, especially when comparing companies with different levels of debt or cash.
- Professional investors prefer EV-based multiples because they better reflect the company’s full financial footprint.
📘 Net Debt
📈 What is it?
Net Debt shows how much debt remains after subtracting a company’s available cash reserves.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
It indicates how dependent a company is on borrowed money and how easily it can service its debt in the short term.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Low or negative net debt signals financial strength and flexibility.
- Companies with strong cash positions are better positioned in crises.
- High net debt increases financial risk — especially in environments with rising interest rates or economic downturns.
📘 Cash
📈 What is it?
Cash represents all liquid assets a company can access immediately — including cash, bank deposits, and short-term investments.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
It reflects a company’s financial flexibility and resilience — enabling investments, buybacks, or buffer in downturns.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A strong cash position means greater room for maneuver and crisis resistance.
- Cash-rich companies can invest, pay down debt, or repurchase shares.
- But excess idle cash might indicate a lack of growth opportunities.
📘 Shares Outstanding
📈 What is it?
Shares outstanding represent the total number of a company’s shares currently held by investors — excluding treasury stock.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
It’s the basis for key metrics like Earnings Per Share (EPS), Market Capitalization, or the Price/Earnings ratio (P/E).
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Fewer shares in circulation typically increase earnings per share — making each share more valuable.
- Share buybacks reduce the number of shares and boost per-share metrics.
- Issuing new shares does the opposite — diluting shareholder value and lowering per-share figures.
📘 Price-to-Earnings Ratio (P/E)
📈 What is it?
The P/E ratio shows how many times a company's earnings per share are reflected in its current share price — in other words, how "expensive" the stock appears relative to its profits.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
The P/E ratio is one of the most widely used valuation metrics. It helps investors assess whether a stock appears cheap or expensive compared to its earnings power.
🧮 Calculation
📊 P/E (TTM) = Based on earnings from the last 12 months (Trailing Twelve Months):🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A low P/E may indicate undervaluation — or signal underlying issues.
- A high P/E may reflect strong growth expectations — or an overvalued stock.
📘 Price-to-Sales Ratio (P/S)
📈 What is it?
The P/S ratio shows how much investors are paying for $1 of the company’s revenue – regardless of profitability.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
P/S is especially useful for evaluating growth companies or businesses not yet profitable. It reflects how the market values the company’s sales.
🧮 Calculation
Market Cap = $7.20b | Revenue (TTM) = $2.74b
Market Cap = $7.20b | Estimated Revenue = $2.63b
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A low P/S may indicate undervaluation — or low profitability.
- A high P/S can reflect strong growth expectations — or excessive optimism.
- Especially helpful when evaluating companies where profits are low, volatile, or negative.
📘 Enterprise Value to Sales (EV/Sales)
📈 What is it?
EV/Sales shows how much investors are paying for $1 of revenue — considering not just equity, but also debt and cash. It’s the capital structure–adjusted version of the P/S ratio.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
It’s ideal for comparing companies with different levels of debt. It reflects a company's true cost relative to its revenue.
🧮 Calculation
Enterprise Value = $8.20b | Revenue (TTM) = $2.74b
Enterprise Value = $8.20b | Forward Revenue = $2.63b
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- EV/Sales allows for capital structure–neutral company comparisons.
- A lower ratio may indicate undervaluation; a higher one may signal strong growth expectations or overvaluation.
- Especially helpful when evaluating high-growth companies with low or negative earnings.
📘 Enterprise Value to Free Cash Flow (EV/FCF)
📈 What is it?
EV/FCF shows how many years it would take for a company to "pay back" its enterprise value using its free cash flow.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
It focuses on real cash generation, ignoring accounting noise — ideal for assessing profitability and value based on liquidity, not earnings.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A low EV/FCF may signal undervaluation and strong cash generation.
- A high EV/FCF might reflect weak recent cash flow or aggressive growth expectations.
- Best suited for stable, mature businesses with predictable free cash flows.
📘 Price-to-Book Ratio (P/B)
📈 What is it?
The P/B ratio compares a company’s market value to its book value — showing how much investors are paying for each dollar of net assets.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
P/B is commonly used for asset-heavy industries like banks or industrials. It helps assess whether a stock is trading above or below its net asset value.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A P/B below 1 may signal undervaluation — or weak profitability.
- A P/B above 1 implies the market expects future value creation (e.g., brand, IP, growth).
- Best used for companies with tangible assets and strong balance sheets.
📘 Dividend per Share (DPS)
📈 What is it?
Dividend per Share shows how much cash a company pays out to shareholders for each share they own – usually on an annual or quarterly basis.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
DPS is the absolute value of the payout per share – crucial for income-focused investors and dividend strategies.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A stable or growing DPS often signals a strong, shareholder-friendly business.
- DPS alone doesn’t tell you how attractive the payout is – the stock price also matters (→ see Dividend Yield).
- Long-term dividend growth is often a hallmark of high-quality companies – like the dividend aristocrats.
📘 Dividend Yield
📈 What is it?
Dividend yield shows how large a company’s dividend is in relation to its current share price.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
It allows investors to compare dividend payouts across stocks, regardless of price or payout size.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A stable yield can reflect reliable distributions.
- Comparing 1Y and 5Y yield shows whether dividend growth keeps pace with stock price appreciation.
- A low yield isn’t always negative – it can signal strong past performance or growth focus.
📘 Dividend Growth
📈 What is it?
Dividend growth shows how much a company has increased its dividend per share over time.
🧮 How is it calculated?
5Y: Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR)
🏛️ Why is it important?
Consistently rising dividends are often a sign of financial strength and shareholder orientation – especially relevant for long-term investors.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Stable dividend growth is a sign of sustainable earning power.
- High dividend growth can significantly boost your total return:
- If a company pays $1 in dividends and increases it by 15% annually over 5 years, you’ll receive $2 per share in year 5 – twice as much as at the start!
📘 Payout Ratio
📈 What is it?
The payout ratio shows what percentage of a company’s earnings (per share) is distributed to shareholders as dividends.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
It helps assess whether the dividend is sustainable – especially in relation to the company’s profitability.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A low payout ratio means the company retains more earnings for reinvestment – typical for growth companies.
- A moderate payout (e.g. 25–50%) indicates a healthy balance between returns and reinvestment.
- High payout ratios may seem attractive but can carry risk if earnings decline.
📘 Consecutive Dividend Increases
📈 What is it?
This metric shows how many consecutive years a company has raised its dividend per share – without any cuts or pauses.
🧮 How is it calculated?
(Special dividends are not considered.)
🏛️ Why is it important?
A long track record of increases reflects financial strength, consistency, and shareholder commitment.
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A long dividend increase streak builds confidence – especially in volatile markets.
- Such companies are seen as reliable and income-friendly investments.
- The longer the streak, the stronger the company’s dividend discipline.
📘 Revenue
📈 What is it?
Revenue shows how much a company earns in total from selling its products and services – the gross income before any costs are deducted.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
Revenue is one of the key figures to assess a company’s size, market position, and growth potential.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Growing revenue indicates rising demand and can be an early signal of future earnings growth.
- Comparing actual and expected revenue reveals trends in the market environment and analyst sentiment.
- Note: Strong revenue alone isn’t enough – margins and profitability matter just as much.
📘 EBITDA
📈 What is it?
EBITDA stands for “Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization.” It reflects a company’s operating profit before the effects of financing, taxes, and accounting depreciation.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
EBITDA is widely used to evaluate a company’s operating performance – especially across capital-intensive sectors or international comparisons.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high or growing EBITDA indicates strong operational profitability – independent of taxes, interest, or accounting methods.
- It’s especially useful for comparing companies across sectors or geographies.
- Important: EBITDA is not a net income figure – it excludes key costs like depreciation and interest.
📘 EBIT
📈 What is it?
EBIT stands for “Earnings Before Interest and Taxes.” It reflects a company’s operating profit after depreciation, but before interest and tax expenses.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
EBIT is a core profitability metric that shows how well the company performs in its main business operations – independent of capital structure and tax environment.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high EBIT indicates strong profitability from the company’s core business – before financial and tax effects.
- It allows better comparison between companies with different debt levels or tax structures.
- Compared to EBITDA, EBIT already accounts for depreciation and reflects capital intensity more clearly.
📘 Net Income
📈 What is it?
Net income is the company’s total profit – the amount left after all expenses, taxes, interest, and depreciation have been deducted.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
Net income is the most comprehensive measure of a company’s profitability – showing how much actual profit remains after all business and financing costs.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Growing net income indicates that the company is managing all of its costs efficiently.
- It directly influences valuation metrics like P/E ratio and the company’s dividend capacity.
- Over time, net income trends reveal how resilient and profitable the business model really is.
📘 Free Cash Flow (FCF)
📈 What is it?
Free Cash Flow shows how much actual cash remains after a company covers its operating expenses and capital expenditures.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
FCF reflects a company’s real financial strength – regardless of accounting profits. It shows how much flexibility a company has for dividends, share buybacks, or debt reduction.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- High free cash flow means the company generates real, usable cash – independent of reported net income.
- It’s often the most reliable base for sustainable dividends and buybacks.
- Declining FCF can be an early warning sign – even when profits appear stable.
📘 Revenue Growth
📈 What is it?
Revenue growth shows how much a company’s sales have changed compared to the previous year – both on a trailing basis (TTM) and based on forward projections.
🧮 How is it calculated?
Forward = (Expected revenue ÷ Revenue in prior year − 1) × 100
Forward growth is based on analyst estimates for the current fiscal year.
🏛️ Why is it important?
Rising revenue signals growing demand, business expansion, and market share gains – especially important for growth-oriented companies.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Growth is the engine of long-term value creation – especially in tech and growth sectors.
- What matters is not just current growth, but its sustainability.
- Forward projections reflect whether analysts expect continued momentum – or a slowdown.
📘 EBITDA Growth
📈 What is it?
EBITDA growth shows how much a company’s operating profit (before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) has increased or decreased compared to the previous year.
🧮 How is it calculated?
Forward = (Expected EBITDA ÷ EBITDA from prior year − 1) × 100
The forward estimate is based on analyst projections for the current fiscal year.
🏛️ Why is it important?
Growing EBITDA indicates improving operational profitability – regardless of financing or accounting effects.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Strong EBITDA growth signals operational efficiency and scalability – especially during growth phases.
- EBITDA growth can be an early indicator of margin and earnings expansion – but should be assessed alongside revenue and EBIT.
📘 EBIT Growth
📈 What is it?
EBIT growth shows how much a company’s operating profit (after depreciation, but before interest and taxes) has increased compared to the previous year.
🧮 How is it calculated?
Forward = (Expected EBIT ÷ EBIT from prior year − 1) × 100
The forward estimate is based on analyst projections for the current fiscal year.
🏛️ Why is it important?
EBIT growth is a direct indicator of a company’s business performance – taking into account capital intensity through depreciation.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Rising EBIT signals improving operating profitability – even after accounting for depreciation.
- It’s especially important for evaluating companies with significant capital expenditures.
- Combined with revenue and EBITDA growth, EBIT growth provides a well-rounded view of operational progress.
📘 Net Income Growth
📈 What is it?
Net income growth shows how much a company’s bottom-line profit has increased or decreased compared to the previous year – both on a trailing basis (TTM) and based on analyst projections.
🧮 How is it calculated?
Forward = (Expected net income ÷ Net income from prior year − 1) × 100
The forward estimate reflects analysts’ expectations for the current fiscal year.
🏛️ Why is it important?
Net income is the ultimate measure of profitability. Growing net income signals stronger efficiency, cost control, and sustainable earnings power.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Stronger net income boosts valuation, dividend potential, and investor confidence.
- If profits stall while revenue grows, it may signal margin pressure.
📘 Free Cash Flow Growth
📈 What is it?
Free cash flow (FCF) growth shows how a company’s available cash – after covering operating expenses and capital expenditures – has changed compared to the previous year.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
Free cash flow reflects real financial strength. Growing FCF indicates more flexibility for dividends, share buybacks, and reinvestment.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Declining FCF may point to rising investments, increasing costs, or weaker operating performance.
- Especially for dividend investors, FCF growth is critical – since dividends are paid from actual available cash.
- A negative trend isn't always bad, but it deserves closer attention.
📘 Gross Margin
📈 What is it?
Gross margin shows how much of a company’s revenue remains after deducting the direct costs of goods sold (like materials and production). It represents the company’s “raw profit” before fixed costs, taxes, and interest.
🧮 How is it calculated?
Or simply: Gross Margin = Gross Profit ÷ Revenue × 100
🏛️ Why is it important?
Gross margin indicates how efficiently a company can produce or procure what it sells. It is a key measure of product-level profitability and pricing power.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high gross margin suggests strong pricing power and efficient production.
- Falling margins may signal rising input costs or competitive pressure.
- Compared to peers, gross margin offers insights into the quality of a business model.
📘 EBITDA Margin
📈 What is it?
The EBITDA margin shows how much of a company’s revenue remains as operating profit before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization.It reflects operating efficiency without being distorted by financing or accounting factors.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
The EBITDA margin reveals how much operating income a company generates per dollar of revenue – independent of capital structure and tax effects.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high EBITDA margin reflects strong core profitability – before accounting distortions.
- It allows for effective comparisons across companies and sectors.
- A stable or growing margin signals efficient cost control and business scalability.
📘 EBIT Margin
📈 What is it?
The EBIT margin shows what percentage of revenue remains as operating profit after depreciation but before interest and taxes.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
The EBIT margin reflects a company’s core profitability while accounting for capital intensity (e.g. machinery, infrastructure). It’s especially useful for comparing businesses with different levels of depreciation.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high EBIT margin shows that the company remains efficient even after factoring in depreciation.
- It’s especially relevant for capital-intensive industries.
- Stable or rising EBIT margins over time are a strong indicator of pricing power and business quality.
📘 Net Margin
📈 What is it?
Net margin shows how much of a company’s revenue remains as bottom-line profit after deducting all costs, interest, taxes, and depreciation.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
Net margin reflects a company’s overall efficiency – across operations, financing, and taxation. It shows how much actual profit is generated from each dollar of revenue.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high net margin means the company is not only strong operationally but also manages financing and taxes efficiently.
- Peer comparisons reveal business quality and competitiveness.
- Declining margins despite revenue growth can be a red flag for rising costs or inefficiencies.
📘 Free cash flow margin
📈 What is it?
The free cash flow (FCF) margin shows how much of a company’s revenue remains as actual free cash after covering all operating expenses and capital expenditures.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
This margin reflects the true liquidity generated by the business – independent of accounting rules or depreciation. It’s especially relevant for dividends, buybacks, and reinvestment decisions.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high FCF margin means a company consistently generates strong cash flow.
- It’s a positive signal for financial stability and shareholder returns.
- The long-term trend is key – a declining margin may indicate rising investments or weakening operating efficiency.
📘 Equity Ratio
📈 What is it?
The equity ratio indicates what portion of a company’s total assets is financed by shareholders’ equity – in other words, how much it relies on its own capital.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
A high equity ratio reflects financial strength and stability, especially during downturns. It’s a key indicator of a company’s solvency and long-term risk profile.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Companies with high equity ratios are generally more resilient and less dependent on external debt.
- Low equity ratios can signal higher risk or aggressive financial strategies.
- Important: Always assess the equity ratio in combination with the return on equity (ROE). This shows not just how stable the company is – but also how efficiently it uses shareholder capital.
📘 Return on Equity (ROE)
📈 What is it?
Return on equity (ROE) shows how efficiently a company uses its shareholders’ equity to generate profit. In other words: how much net income is earned per dollar of equity.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
ROE is a core profitability metric. It helps investors understand whether a company delivers attractive returns on the capital provided by its shareholders.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high ROE indicates that the company is using its capital efficiently and profitably.
- It’s especially meaningful for capital-intensive businesses or firms with high equity bases.
- Important: A very high ROE can also result from high debt levels – always interpret it alongside the equity ratio to assess financial health.
📘 Return on Capital Employed (ROCE)
📈 What is it?
ROCE measures how efficiently a company generates profits from its total capital – including both equity and interest-bearing debt.
🧮 How is it calculated?
It evaluates the return on all capital employed, regardless of how it’s financed.
🏛️ Why is it important?
ROCE is ideal for comparing companies with different financing structures. It shows how well management uses capital to create value for both shareholders and creditors.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high ROCE means the company uses its capital efficiently – regardless of whether it's funded by debt or equity.
- The higher the ROCE compared to peers, the more value the company creates with its invested capital.
- Especially relevant for capital-intensive sectors like industrials, energy, or infrastructure.
📘 Return on Invested Capital (ROIC)
📈 What is it?
ROIC measures how efficiently a company generates returns from the capital invested in its core operations – regardless of whether the capital comes from equity or debt.
🧮 How is it calculated?
- NOPAT = Net Operating Profit After Taxes
- Invested Capital = Operating assets minus non-interest-bearing liabilities
🏛️ Why is it important?
ROIC is one of the most accurate indicators of capital efficiency. Unlike return on equity, it is not distorted by leverage and shows how much value is created for all capital providers.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high ROIC shows how effectively a company uses the capital that is truly invested in its core operations.
- Unlike ROCE, ROIC focuses only on the capital that is actively used to run the business – and that requires a return (i.e. interest-bearing).
- Especially useful when comparing companies with large amounts of excess cash or non-interest-bearing liabilities – giving a more realistic picture of capital efficiency.
📘 Leverage Ratio (Debt-to-Equity)
📈 What is it?
The leverage ratio indicates how much a company relies on interest-bearing debt (such as loans and bonds) relative to its shareholders’ equity.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
This ratio helps assess a company’s financial structure and risk profile. High leverage can enhance returns – but also increases exposure to interest rate changes and financial stress.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A low leverage ratio signals financial strength and independence.
- A higher ratio can improve returns in good times but increases risk during downturns or rising interest rate periods.
- 👉 Always interpret in the context of industry, capital intensity, and interest rate environment.
📘 Earnings per share (EPS)
📈 What is it?
Earnings per Share (EPS) shows how much profit is attributable to a single share – and is one of the most important metrics for evaluating a company's performance.
🧮 How is it calculated?
The diluted share count reflects potential new shares that could be issued through options, convertible bonds, or other rights.
🏛️ Why is it important?
EPS is the basis for many key valuation metrics like P/E ratio, PEG ratio, or payout ratio. It enables comparisons of profitability across companies, regardless of their size.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- EPS captures per-share profitability and is especially useful for comparisons over time or with analyst estimates.
- Rising EPS may signal consistent growth or share buybacks.
- Important: Always use diluted EPS for more realistic valuations – especially in companies with stock-based compensation.
📘 Free cash flow per share (FCF per share)
📈 What is it?
Free Cash Flow per Share shows how much free cash flow a company generates per outstanding share – after investments, but before dividends or debt repayments.
🧮 How is it calculated?
Free cash flow is calculated as operating cash flow minus capital expenditures (CapEx).
🏛️ Why is it important?
FCF per Share reveals how much real cash is available per share – useful for dividends, buybacks, or reducing debt. Unlike net income, free cash flow is harder to manipulate and often seen as a more reliable metric.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- High FCF per share signals strong financial flexibility.
- It shows how much capital the company can effectively reinvest or return to shareholders.
- Particularly relevant for dividend payers and capital-efficient businesses.
📘 Short interest
📈 What is it?
Short interest indicates how many shares of a company are currently sold short – that is, borrowed and sold by investors who expect the price to decline.
🧮 How is it calculated?
It reflects the percentage of a company’s shares that are being shorted relative to the total shares available.
🏛️ Why is it important?
Short interest serves as a sentiment indicator: A high value may signal skepticism or bearish expectations – but also increases the potential for a short squeeze if prices rise unexpectedly.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Low short interest usually indicates market confidence in the company.
- High short interest can be a warning sign – or an opportunity if sentiment shifts.
- Especially relevant in volatile markets or ahead of key earnings releases.
📘 Employees
📈 What is it?
The employee count shows how many people a company employs worldwide – offering insights into its size, structure, and business model.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
It helps assess operational scale, labor intensity, and cost structure. Combined with revenue and profit, it enables key metrics like revenue per employee or productivity.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high headcount can signal operational complexity – but also significant growth capacity.
- Revenue per employee is a key indicator of efficiency.
- Especially useful for comparing tech, industrial, or service-heavy companies.
📘 Turnover per employee
📈 What is it?
Revenue per employee indicates how much revenue a company generates on average per employee – a key measure of efficiency and productivity.
🧮 How is it calculated?
The employee count is typically taken from the most recent annual report.
🏛️ Why is it important?
This metric helps compare business models – especially between labor-intensive and technology-driven companies. A high value suggests automation, operational efficiency, or strong value creation per head.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high revenue per employee indicates a scalable and margin-strong business model.
- A low figure may reflect labor-intensive operations or lower value-add.
- Especially helpful when comparing tech companies to industrial or service sectors.
Arcosa Inc Stock Analysis
Analyst Opinions
8 Analysts have issued a Arcosa Inc forecast:
Analyst Opinions
8 Analysts have issued a Arcosa Inc forecast:
Arcosa Inc Events
Past Events
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JUN
22
Arcosa, Inc., CRH plc - M&A Call
3 months ago
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MAY
1
Q1 2026 Earnings Call
5 months ago
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FEB
27
Q4 2025 Earnings Call
7 months ago
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OCT
31
Q3 2025 Earnings Call
11 months ago
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StocksGuide Free
Arcosa Inc — Arcosa, Inc., CRH plc - M&A Call
1. Management Discussion
Good day, and welcome to the CRH conference call. My name is Krista, and I will be your operator today. [Operator Instructions]
At this time, I'd like to turn the conference over to Jim Mintern, CRH Chief Executive Officer, to begin the conference. Please go ahead, sir.
Hello, everyone. Jim Mintern here, CEO of CRH, and you're all very welcome to our presentation and conference call following our announced agreement to acquire Arcosa this morning, a significant investment for CRH and an acceleration of our growth strategy.
Joining me on the call is Aylwyn Bryan, our CFO; Randy Lake, our COO; and Danilo Juvane, Head of Investor Relations.
Over the next 15 minutes or so, we will provide you with an overview of the proposed transaction. And afterwards, we will be available to take any questions that you may have.
Before we get started, I'll hand over to Danilo for some brief opening remarks.
Thanks, Jim, and hello, everyone. I'd like to draw your attention to Slide 2 shown here on the screen. During our presentation, we'll be making some forward-looking statements related to our future plans and expectations. These are subject to certain risks and uncertainties, and actual results and outcomes could differ materially due to factors outlined on this slide. For more details, please refer to our annual report and other SEC filings, which are available on our website. We will also present projected financial information, which is based on management's current estimates and assumptions and has been prepared for illustrative purposes.
I will now hand you back to Jim, Aylwyn and Randy.
Thanks, Danilo. First, on Slide 3, a high-level overview of the proposed acquisition, which represents a compelling growth and value creation opportunity for CRH and will reinforce our position as the #1 infrastructure player in North America.
Arcosa is a leading provider of building materials and critical infrastructure products in the United States. With 35 million tons of annual high-quality aggregates, it will strengthen our position as the leader in U.S. aggregates with over 265 million tons of combined annualized production. Under our ownership, it will enhance our connected customer offering in attractive markets aligned with growing infrastructure megatrends.
It is highly complementary and an excellent strategic fit with CRH advancing our aggregates-led connected portfolio strategy. Arcosa has high-quality assets and an experienced management team with a proven track record of execution and a strong cultural alignment with CRH. We expect the acquisition to deliver strong growth and compelling value to CRH shareholders. It is consistent with our disciplined approach to capital deployment, fully aligned with our strategic ambitions and reinforces our position as a leading compounder of capital.
I will now ask Aylwyn to take you through the transaction in further detail.
Thanks, Jim, and hello, everybody. Turning to Slide 4. Our proposed acquisition of Arcosa for a cash consideration of $150 per share reflects a total enterprise value of $8.5 billion. This represents an EV-to-EBITDA multiple of 11.5x based on the midpoint of Arcosa's 2026 adjusted EBITDA guidance and including currently expected run rate cost synergies of approximately $175 million.
We intend to fund the transaction with available cash and committed debt financing. It is expected to be accretive to earnings, margins and cash flow in the first 12 months post completion excluding one-off transaction costs. On a pro forma 2026 basis, the transaction is expected to result in a net debt to adjusted EBITDA ratio of approximately 2.4x. We expect this to normalize towards our long-term average of approximately 2x in the 12 months post-completion, and we remain committed to maintaining our strong investment-grade credit rating, which we've held for over 20 years. The transaction is subject to Arcosa's stockholder approval, regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions, and we expect it to close in the first quarter of 2027.
Thanks, Aylwyn. On Slide 5, you can see a high-level overview of Arcosa. At the midpoint of its 2026 guidance, it is expected to generate $2.65 billion of revenue and $565 million of adjusted EBITDA, representing a margin of over 21%. Arcosa comprises 2 infrastructure-related businesses. Construction Products representing approximately 60% of the adjusted EBITDA, and Engineered Structures representing the remaining 40%.
Construction Products is a high-quality connected aggregates-led materials business serving 13 of the 50 largest MSAs in the United States with leading positions in Texas, the Southeast and other high-growth regions.
Engineered Structures is a leading U.S. manufacturer of critical infrastructure products in the high-growth energy transmission market. The business is supported by robust long-term demand underpinned by grid modernization, electrification and data center construction.
I will now ask Randy to provide some further color on each of the businesses.
Thanks, Jim, and hello, everyone. First, to Construction Products on Slide 6, a scaled aggregates platform in high-growth markets. With approximately 1.3 billion tons of aggregate reserves, it's fully aligned with our core strategy of strengthening our aggregates and cementitious businesses, 2 of our key growth platforms, which we highlighted during our Investor Day last year.
As you can see on the map, it has an attractive footprint of aggregates, asphalt and specialty materials, concentrated in Texas, the Southeast and other high-growth markets in the United States. It will also provide us with increased aggregates exposure in some of the fastest-growing MSAs in the United States, including Dallas-Fort Worth and Phoenix.
Combined with our existing business, there are significant opportunities to self-supply and create value through our connected portfolio. It will also complement and expand our capabilities in engineered concrete. Additionally, it's a leading U.S. provider of recycled aggregates and stabilized sand, representing 2 attractive growth platforms for CRH. Overall, it will reinforce our position as the leading aggregates producer with over 265 million tons of annualized production in the United States and over 400 million tons globally.
Turning to Slide 7, and Engineered Structures, which will strengthen our capabilities in the fast-growing U.S. energy infrastructure market. It's highly complementary to our connected customer offering across our aggregates, cementitious and critical infrastructure businesses and increases our exposure to growing infrastructure megatrends, supported by essential nondiscretionary investment. For example, as a result of the structural deficit and power supply, U.S. utilities are expected to invest approximately $1.4 trillion in grid infrastructure through 2030.
It further extends and complements our existing participation in energy transmission, one of the fastest-growing and most in-demand segments of the utility value chain. It will also deepen relationships with our shared customer base through a combination of long-term alliances with utility customers in a high-quality backlog, approximating its 2026 forecasted revenue, the business benefits from long-term demand visibility.
And as you can see on the map, it has an extensive manufacturing footprint with 18 manufacturing facilities across the United States and Mexico and benefits from a top 3 market position with leading brands, including Meyer Utility Structures.
Turning to Slide 8, and the synergy and value creation opportunities we've identified so far. With over 1,200 acquisitions completed throughout our history, we have a proven ability to acquire and integrate businesses at scale. And for this acquisition, we're uniquely positioned to deliver significant value creation for shareholders, leveraging on our unmatched scale, connected portfolio and leading performance capabilities.
We currently expect approximately $175 million of run-rate cost synergies to be achieved by year 3. And here, we've outlined the expected phasing with $60 million anticipated in the first year of ownership. We've identified significant opportunities for operational improvements, leveraging our expertise and technical capabilities from across our business to optimize plant performance and improve production efficiencies. It will also be very beneficial from a logistics and network optimization perspective, enabling us to be more efficient in how we service our customers.
There are also opportunities across our global procurement network, leveraging our scale, purchasing power and supply arrangements for materials, equipment and services. And from an integration standpoint, there are opportunities to self-supply our existing road and critical infrastructure businesses as well as optimizing our administrative and support function.
So in summary, the transaction represents strong synergy and value creation potential, and we're excited about the opportunity.
Thanks, Randy. Turning to Slide 9. I'd like to take a moment to highlight how the proposed acquisition of Arcosa aligns with our growth algorithm, which we outlined during last year's Investor Day. As the leading infrastructure player in North America, we are uniquely positioned to capitalize on 3 large and growing megatrends, transportation, water and reindustrialization, which we believe will support significant growth and value creation for our business going forward. The acquisition of Arcosa will enhance our exposure and capabilities in each of these areas.
Next, the CRH Winning Way, the force multiplier that enables us to fully capitalize on these growing infrastructure megatrends. Through our winning way, we execute our superior strategy with discipline and focus, driving leading performance across 4,000 locations through a culture of continuous improvement. As responsible stewards of our shareholder capital, we leverage our proven growth capabilities to build leadership positions of scale in attractive high-growth markets. All of this is supported by 4 key enablers: customer centricity, empowered teams, unmatched scale and our connected portfolio of businesses.
In summary, the acquisition of Arcosa together with the benefits of our winning way will reinforce our position as the leading compounder of capital in our industry.
Turning now to Slide 10. And as we previously communicated, over the next 5 years, we expect to have at our disposal financial capacity of approximately $40 billion, reflecting our strong growth profile, the level of cash we are generating and the strength of our balance sheet. We expect to allocate approximately 70% of this to growth investments, and the acquisition of Arcosa accelerates our progress in this regard while also demonstrating our disciplined approach to capital allocation.
The acquisition of Arcosa is fully aligned with the delivery of our 2030 financial targets: annual revenue growth of between 7% and 9% and adjusted EBITDA margin of 22% to 24% by 2030 and average adjusted free cash flow conversion of over 100%.
Before I turn over to Q&A, I will leave you with a few key takeaways from our presentation this morning. Arcosa is a leading U.S. provider of building materials and critical infrastructure products. With 35 million tons of annual high-quality aggregates production, it will strengthen our position as the leading aggregates producer with over 265 million tons of annualized production in the United States. The proposed acquisition of Arcosa will enhance our connected customer offering in attractive high-growth markets aligned with growing infrastructure megatrends.
In summary, this represents a compelling growth and value creation opportunity for CRH. It is enabled by our unmatched scale and cash generation capabilities, which provides us with the opportunity to deploy capital at scale and to further strengthen our leading positions across 4 connected growth platforms. Overall, the acquisition is a strong endorsement of our superior strategy, connected portfolio and the optionality we have for capital deployment.
So that concludes our presentation today. I will now hand you back to the moderator to coordinate the Q&A session of our call.
[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from Adrian Huerta with JPMorgan.
2. Question Answer
Congrats on the transaction, and thank you for all the details provided in the presentation. Just 2 questions -- 2 quick questions. The first one is within all this that you explained, what is it exactly that excites you the most from this transaction?
And the second question is, how do you see this strategic fit of the Engineered Structures business of Arcosa within CRH?
Yes, listen, what excites us, Arcosa is a high-quality business, Adrian. Firstly, it's got a really attractive growth profile, and it's highly complementary to our existing business. And it's reinforcing our position as the #1 infrastructure player in North America.
Now, when you look into it, this is one of the largest U.S. aggregates acquisitions in the last 20 years, and it's really further strengthening our position as the leading U.S. and indeed a global aggregates producer. It takes us to about 265 million tons in North America and over 400 million tons globally. And particularly on this transaction, what's kind of exciting is that it is bringing us from an ags perspective into kind of 2 new high-growth MSAs in the Dallas-Fort Worth and Phoenix. We already have existing footprints there, but now going in there with ags is really super complementary to our connected portfolio.
I think the deal is kind of fully aligned with our strategy we set out in last year's Investor Day, which is kind of the focus on markets and regions with strong growing infrastructure megatrends and acquiring leading regional positions in high-growth markets all in all the time kind of focusing on enhancing our connected portfolio.
The deal this morning is going to give us strong growth and value creation potential, but attractive synergy opportunities. And we expect the transaction will be earnings margin and cash flow accretive 12 months post-completion. When we look at it from a multiple perspective, post the year 3 synergy rate of about $175 million, it's about 11.5x our synergized multiple, which is pretty much in line with our current trading multiple.
Now, I think the second question was around the Engineered Structures maybe and how it fits. I might ask Randy maybe to come back in on the second part of this, just to talk about some of the underlying drivers in that particular business, but it's highly complementary to our connected customer offering across both our cementitious and our critical infrastructure businesses, and it's increasing our exposure to those growing infrastructure megatrends.
We've actually been deploying capital in this space for the last 2 to 3 years. What it actually does is increases our connected product offering to actually the same customer base, the large utility companies. If you think about it, our existing U.S. IPG infrastructure business, the energy and water business is already supplying into this customer base. And last year's biggest acquisition, Eco Material, is on all these utility sites also. So it's really pulling together our kind of connected product offering to that same customer base.
But maybe, Randy, you might just talk about some of the underlying drivers we see in this space.
Yes. I mean, when we step back and look at Arcosa, first of all, in this space, they're a top 3 player in what we called out as obviously a very fast and growing transmission market. I think as Jim highlighted, it really does complement the capabilities that we currently have in that space. And if you think about not just the grid modernizations, the electrification that's taken place, the data center construction, all 3 of those things are really supporting the underlying drive for long-term growth in that sector.
And I think I mentioned in the opening remarks, the U.S. is expected -- the utilities in the U.S. are expected to invest $1.4 trillion through 2030 in terms of the underlying modernization in transmission and distribution. And I think another interesting point is over 70% of the U.S. grid is greater than 25 years old. So it's not just the additional capacity expansion. It's also modernization of the existing network.
And I think Jim -- lastly, Jim called it out, which is very important in terms of that relationship that we currently already have with the utilities, the work that Arcosa has done in terms of long-term customer alliances. And if you look at their backlog, the high quality level of that backlog gives you a lot of confidence in the mid- to long-term in terms of the need and the underlying investment.
Your next question comes from the line of Anthony Pettinari with Citi.
Jim, given you have a bit of geographical overlap in Texas and maybe kind of New York, New Jersey. I'm just wondering how you'd compare CRH's existing business with Arcosa's in maybe those 2 regions? And do you anticipate there could be any kind of divestitures or any kind of changes to make the deal go through?
Anthony, yes, listen, Texas, as we would have said, is the biggest state in CRH, right? We have a tremendous connected footprint there already. As I said, what's particularly interesting on the Arcosa deal is that it's bringing us ags, which we didn't have into the DFW MSA, so that's -- and really connecting what is a very strong footprint there already for us. So that's particularly exciting about it. The transaction itself is going to be subject to kind of customer closing conditions, including, firstly, Arcosa's shareholder and then regulatory approvals. And we expected to close in Q1 2027, but we don't anticipate any issues.
Your next question comes from the line of Michael Feniger with Bank of America.
Gentlemen, just -- I know you touched on it. I realize with Engineered Structures, it's exposed to megatrends with utility and grid CapEx. Can you just explain to us -- I mean, there's -- I think there's wind in there as well at 10% of Arcosa, 10% to 12%. Is that something you intend to keep? Do you have to invest more in this business? Is it higher capital intensity than the material side? And is the synergies -- is it complementary just because of the customer base? Or is it also just certain products you can cross-sell? Just help us understand a little bit more how the overall portfolio of Engineered Structures kind of fits in with CRH today.
Sure, Michael. Maybe a couple of questions there. Firstly, maybe I'll take the first one in terms of the wind side of it. Yes, you're right, the wind is a little less than 10% of Arcosa's business today. I think we can all agree on the kind of the opportunity and the need to continue to invest in the power generation network across the U.S. And in fact, wind today is still the cheapest and the quickest and fastest form to deploy in terms of power generation from that perspective.
It also has -- if you're familiar with Arcosa, the plants themselves are incredibly flexible in terms of the options you give, right? And when we see the demand that we have on the power generation side, we have the optionality also to pivot into that to meet the -- what we have today, a very significant kind of market dislocation between the demand side and the supply side.
In terms of the synergy side of it, maybe I'll kick it off, maybe ask Randy to comment on some of the details side of it, but -- we have a long history of acquisitions in CRH, right? And I think we've a proven ability to acquire and to integrate businesses at scale, 38 acquisitions last year in 2025. We're continuously able to leverage our unmatched scale, the connected portfolio and our kind of performance capabilities. Clearly, Arcosa is a public company acquisition. But in addition, there's very strong kind of operational synergies also.
But maybe, Randy, do you want to give a bit more color on those?
Yes. I mean, just to build on that, obviously, there's a history there in terms of our ability to integrate at scale. And I look at this deal as really kind of right down the middle in terms of what we're very, very good at and what we deliver in terms of synergies. And you would expect it to be in the areas that Jim called out. So certainly, we see kind of underlying opportunities and performance and production efficiencies. I think that the maximizing the logistics network will be a critical element of that. We called out Texas. It's our largest state. It's kind of plug and play in terms of self-supply. A lot of opportunity in and around just making sure that we're optimizing the logistical components of the deal there.
Our scale is going to certainly bring advantages from a procurement standpoint, and so we would anticipate significant opportunity there. And I think we laid it out in such a way that makes sense, $60 million in terms of the first 12 months and then $175 million by the end of year 3. I think also what we've learned over time, and I think we've done very well, is kind of dedicating resources and teams working side by side with the operating folks to drive the implementation of some of these practices as well as making sure that we're tracking and delivering on what we've laid out today in terms of synergies.
Your next question comes from the line of Angel Castillo with Morgan Stanley.
You've already touched on a number of these points, but just wanted to maybe unpack the Engineered Structures, maybe the strategic significance a little bit more -- in a little bit more detail. Just maybe any way to kind of quantify the potential for revenue synergies here given some of the overlap and perhaps customers?
And then also just on the backlog visibility, one of, I think, the notable aspects of -- for instance, some of the work that you do in data centers is how you can go kind of work with the customer a little bit earlier on than the traditional kind of aggregates model. So can you just talk about the connectivity of the portfolio? And how maybe having more backlog visibility maybe impact the rest of your business broadly?
Yes, sure, Angel. Good to hear from you. Yes. I think in terms of the Engineered Structures business, as we said today, it's kind of building on where we've been deploying capital recently in the last number of years and really tapping into that megatrend of infrastructure build-out, right, across the kind of faster-growing regions of the U.S. So we're already supplying into that customer base through our IPG energy infrastructure work, but also to the Eco Material, who is actually physically on all the utility company sites as well and providing services. So it's a very interesting connection from that perspective to increase, I guess, a kind of share of wallet with a high-quality, fast-growing customer base -- utility customer base.
And when you look at the demand projections that are out there, you're looking at kind of very high single-digit top line growth rates in terms of underlying volume demand over the next kind of 5 to 7 years in this particular space. So very good revenue kind of synergies abilities.
You are absolutely right in terms of data centers, we are now active, I think, at this stage, over nearly 150 data centers across the U.S., right? We really kind of punch above our weight in terms of our share because of that connected product solution. It's not just about providing kind of one particular product like aggregates or concrete, but you're absolutely right, we're often in the very first with this exact kind of energy and water infrastructure on the subterranean services that are going into these sites.
Then, particularly as well in terms of soil stabilization, a very interesting aspect of this Arcosa acquisition. They have a very nice kind of niche high-growth area in soil stabilization, which is going to be super complementary to the whole build-out of data centers. And then, you bring in the rest of the connected portfolio in terms aggregates, concrete, asphalt, paving, et cetera. So again, it is acquiring high-quality connected infrastructure assets in fast-growing states, right? And that's what's particularly attractive for us and why we're excited about the transaction this morning.
Thanks, Angel.
Your next question comes from the line of Trey Grooms with Stephens.
So you guys talked quite a bit about clearly the Engineered Structures and utility, et cetera. You touched for a second on wind. But you mentioned, Jim, plant optionality, and Arcosa is currently increasing capacity within their utility structures business, converting a wind facility to utility structures. This is -- and clearly, utility has been a high-growth area for Arcosa. And I think once this plant conversion takes place, wind contribution to EBITDA for Arcosa is pretty insignificant. So my question is with some of the changes on the horizon that we're seeing in wind, do you expect to kind of continue to deemphasize wind overall? Or do you think as we kind of get into -- through '27 and into '28, as maybe the landscape becomes a little more clear, that there would be more stability in that part of the business where you could see maybe putting a little bit of growth capital into that? Just how you're thinking about the wind business once some of this plant optionality is already taking place?
Yes, absolutely, Trey. Good to hear from you. Yes, you're right, right? I mean, post the conversion of the ongoing Tulsa facility in Oklahoma, wind is going to be a pretty small part of even the Arcosa footprint, right, from that perspective. As I said, kind of in the introduction question as well, it is an area that right now today is the fastest and the cheapest way to deploy power generation onshore from a U.S. perspective. So that will be interesting to see that how that plays out over the next number of years. What gives us comfort around it is that optionality and the speed at which you're able to convert those facilities. And obviously, the excellent in-house technical expertise within Arcosa, but they've done this time and time before as well. So it's kind of a very small piece of the Arcosa footprint as we go forward, but there's optionality around us.
Okay. That's good. And one other one. We've touched on the cost synergies and some of the other things, but specifically around the -- on the construction business for -- Construction Products business for Arcosa, you mentioned there is a little bit of overlap and some things like this. But do you see more as you think about revenue synergy opportunities? Do you think that would be more kind of on the Engineered Structures, utility side of the house? Or do you see some opportunity on construction as well?
Yes. It's a good question. I'd say, yes, on Engineered Structures for sure, but you actually see significant opportunities in the material space as well. If you look at just the commonality of customers who actually consume and use our product and the way that we go to market in terms of the connected portfolio, we see opportunities to increase share and growth in those particular customers. So we see as much, probably even more opportunity in that traditional material space as we do with the engineering products.
And we have time for one more question, and that question comes from Kathryn Thompson with Thompson Research Group.
And really kind of a 2-part question. First, this is the -- one of the largest deals in the industry in recent years, certainly transformative. The only prior thing that was as big as you switching your primary listing. So what does this say about the scale of the M&A opportunities in the market? And then just a follow-up on that, and we had a great opportunity last week to see your largest quarry in the system in -- just outside of Austin. And I do note that Arcosa's assets has a quarry on the other side, so it nicely complements that market. But could you break out true blue aggregates versus recycled and other materials? How much of your heavy materials is true hard rock versus your recycled? But first, focusing primarily on the M&A opportunities out there.
Kathryn, good to hear from you. Yes, listen, just the deal this morning, just to put it in context for us, it's a little over 10% of the market cap of CRH, right? But -- and we have a strong tradition in -- from an M&A perspective. In fact, we've done over 1,200 acquisitions in our history. I think when you look at the kind of structure of the business today in the United States, firstly, really due to the kind of fragmented nature of it, most of the deals we do are kind of primarily bolt-ons. If you look at the 38 deals last year, the majority of them, I think, over 30, came from kind of local bolt-ons across the businesses. But for us, it's not really about the size of any particular transaction. It's more about the scale and the value creation opportunity that we have.
Now, we called out in the Investor Day last year, given that scale, we have up to $40 billion of financial capacity out to 2030, but that leaves us uniquely positioned to capitalize on opportunities like Arcosa. We have a strong pipeline still in terms of M&A, right? And we've got good opportunities where to deploy capital at scale and really to build on our leading positions across our connected portfolios. We called it out in terms of the platforms of growth, whether its aggregates, cementitious, roads or kind of water infrastructure and energy infrastructure. We've got very good optionality in terms of where we deploy capital. And I kind of always said, what comes with optionality is discipline, right, isn't that, where you allocate that capital. And that's a very important point of it as well. I think it all comes together in terms of reinforcing our position as kind of the leading compounder of capital in this space in the U.S.
In terms of the second one, and I think if I understood it properly, Kathryn, just in terms of the Arcosa, over 90% of the aggregate number we gave this morning is coming from virgin aggregates and the remainder is coming from recycled ags.
Excellent. Best of luck.
Thank you very much, Kathryn.
Well, that's all we have time for today, and thank you all for your attention. And as always, if you have any follow-up questions, please feel free to contact our Investor Relations team. We look forward to updating you again in July when we will report our results for the second quarter of 2026.
Thank you. Have a good day and stay safe.
Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude today's conference call. Thank you for your participation, and you may now disconnect.
Arcosa Inc — Q1 2026 Earnings Call
1. Management Discussion
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Arcosa, Inc. First Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. My name is Chloe, and I will be your conference call coordinator today. As a reminder, today's call is being recorded.
Now I would like to turn the call over to your host, Erin Drabek, Vice President of Investor Relations for Arcosa. Ms. Drabek, you may begin.
Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining Arcosa's First Quarter 2026 Earnings Call. With me today are Antonio Carrillo, President and CEO; and Gail Peck, CFO. A question-and-answer session will follow their prepared remarks. A copy of the press release issued yesterday and a slide presentation for this morning's call are posted on our Investor Relations website, ir.arcosa.com. A replay of today's call will be available for the next 2 weeks. Instructions for accessing the replay number are included in the press release. A replay of the webcast will be available for 1 year on our website under the News and Events tab.
Today's comments and presentation slides contain financial measures that have not been prepared in accordance with GAAP. Reconciliations of non-GAAP financial measures to the closest GAAP measure are included in the appendix of the slide presentation. In addition, today's conference call contains forward-looking statements as defined by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from such forward-looking statements. Please refer to the company's SEC filings for more information on these risks and uncertainties, including the press release we filed yesterday and our Form 10-Q expected to be filed later today.
I would now like to turn the call over to Antonio.
Thank you, Erin. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for a discussion of our first quarter results and 2026 outlook. I am very pleased with our performance. We kicked off the year with strong results, made meaningful progress on our strategic transformation, and increased our full year guidance for continuing operations.
In the first quarter, we delivered adjusted EBITDA growth of 10% from continuing operations, double our revenue growth, and expanded margin by 100 basis points. The strong performance was driven by robust double-digit top line growth and strong margin uplift in utility structures. Despite typical seasonality and winter weather impacts, Construction Products contributed solid results, and we were pleased to see performance improved as the quarter progressed. Importantly, we recently reached a key milestone in our transformation. On April 1, we announced the completion of the $450 million barge divestiture, a pivotal step in simplifying our portfolio. Now with 2 segments, we're fully focused on Construction Products and Engineered Structures, both well positioned to benefit from infrastructure investment and power market tailwinds in the U.S. We intend to use the net proceeds from the barge sale to reinvest in our growth platforms and manage our debt.
In March, we completed a $60 million acquisition of a natural aggregates operation located in Florida with accretive margins that enhance our platform in this attractive market. We continue to have an active bolt-on M&A pipeline complemented by a healthy set of high-return organic growth projects. Our balance sheet is in great shape. And at the end of the first quarter, pro forma for the barge divestiture, net debt-to-adjusted EBITDA decreased to 1.9x, slightly below our target range, providing for both flexibility and capacity to support continued growth.
Turning to the outlook. Our full year 2026 guidance now reflects continuing operations only. At the midpoint of our guidance range, we expect adjusted EBITDA of $565 million, up $22.5 million from our previous guidance range, representing 11% growth year-over-year. In Construction Products, our demand outlook remains broadly consistent with the start of the year with new uncertainty created by the conflict in the Middle East, which commenced the day after our February earnings call. While geopolitical volatility is elevated and oil prices have risen sharply, we have not seen that translate into weaker demand in our construction footprint.
Within Engineered Structures, our first quarter performance in utility structures exceeded expectations. Momentum has been building in the demand environment for some time, and this strength is aligned with the excellent commercial and operational execution by our team, driving record margin performance in the quarter. As a result, we have raised our expectations for the balance of the year.
Reflecting on our journey as a stand-alone public company, we have never been better positioned. Our objective at the time of the spin-off was to grow in attractive markets while simplifying the portfolio and reducing cyclicality. We have succeeded in doing this while strengthening our margin profile and enhancing the company's overall resilience. Across our simplified portfolio, we are aligned to capitalize on durable multiyear U.S. infrastructure-related tailwinds. We're confident that these advantages, combined with disciplined capital deployment and consistent execution, position us to deliver continued shareholder value creation.
I will now turn the call over to Gail to provide additional details on our first quarter segment results.
Thank you, Antonio. Good morning, everyone. My comments today will focus on continuing operations. First quarter results for the barge business are included in discontinued operations, and we have eliminated segment reporting for Transportation Products.
Starting with Construction Products. First quarter results finished largely in line with our expectations, overcoming a slow start to the quarter due to severe winter weather across our footprint in January. Segment revenues increased 5% and adjusted segment EBITDA decreased slightly. Adjusted EBITDA growth in aggregates and trench shoring was offset by pronounced seasonality in asphalt and lower cost absorption in Specialty Materials. For aggregates, freight-adjusted revenues increased roughly 6%, driven by 2% pricing growth and 4% volume. Adjusted cash gross profit margin increased 220 basis points and adjusted cash gross profit per ton increased 7%. Performance this quarter was led by our Texas region, which benefited from favorable weather in February and March that more than offset the harsh winter conditions throughout the quarter in our East region.
Turning to Specialty Materials and Asphalt. Revenues decreased 4%, primarily due to lower asphalt volumes. Revenues for Specialty Materials increased slightly, driven by higher lightweight aggregates volume. Costs were higher year-over-year due to planned maintenance downtime at one of our lightweight plants and a larger seasonal impact from asphalt. The result was lower adjusted EBITDA for the quarter. We expect to see earnings growth and margin improvement for both product lines for the remainder of the year. Finally, our trench shoring business completed another strong quarter of growth with both revenues and adjusted EBITDA up about 26%. Record order levels converted into higher volumes, and customer sentiment remains very positive.
Moving to Engineered Structures. Segment revenues increased 4%, led by mid-teen growth in our utility and related structures businesses, more than compensating for lower wind tower revenues, which were expected. Utility structures revenue accelerated north of 15%, supported by both volume and pricing. Significant margin expansion drove a 21% increase in adjusted segment EBITDA. Segment margin increased to a record 21.1%, up 300 basis points year-over-year due to strong utility structures performance. During the quarter, the team successfully executed strategic capacity expansion projects to drive volume and accelerate the delivery of more favorable product mix.
We ended the quarter with record backlog for utility and related structures of $558 million, up 28% from the start of the year. Order activity continued to be strong and included a couple of orders for long-term projects that extend into 2028. Customer reservations, which are not included in reported backlog, are also robust. For wind towers, we received orders of $43 million during the quarter for delivery in 2026 and 2027. We ended the quarter with backlog of $600 million and expect to recognize 36% in 2026 and 59% in 2027.
I'll now provide some comments on our cash flow performance and balance sheet position. During the quarter, we generated $58 million of operating cash flow from continuing operations, which compared favorably to last year's $21 million use of cash. The increase was driven by higher earnings and a $53 million reduction in the use of cash for working capital. CapEx for continuing operations for the first quarter was $44 million compared to $33 million in the prior year period, which reflects increased investment in our core growth platforms. Free cash flow from continuing operations was $21 million, up from negative $49 million in the prior period.
Additional cash activity in the quarter included the investment of $60 million for the bolt-on natural aggregates acquisition and $18 million of share repurchase to offset dilution. Our balance sheet and liquidity position were enhanced by the barge sale. Pro forma for the April 1 closing, net debt-to-adjusted EBITDA is 1.9x compared to 2.3x at quarter end. This reflects $370 million of estimated after-tax net proceeds, of which $83 million was used to prepay a portion of the outstanding term loan balance in April. Pro forma liquidity is estimated at $1.1 billion, including full availability under our $700 million revolver.
I'll wrap up with guidance updates on a few items to reflect continuing operations now that the barge divestiture has closed. We now expect full year CapEx of $215 million to $240 million, a slight reduction from the prior range. We anticipate a full year effective tax rate of 16% to 18%, down 1.5 points due to a lower expected state tax rate for continuing operations. The first quarter tax rate of 5.3% was favorably impacted by onetime discrete items. So our guidance implies a quarterly effective rate slightly above the top end of the range for the balance of the year. And finally, we anticipate the full year corporate cost impact to adjusted EBITDA to be approximately $60 million at the midpoint of our guidance range, roughly flat with 2025 as we offset barge stranded costs.
I will now turn the call back to Antonio for more discussion on our 2026 outlook.
Thank you, Gail. We have started the year on solid footing, completing the barge divestiture, delivering strong financial and operational results and raising guidance. As a result, Arcosa is well positioned to deliver another year of record financial results for our 2 remaining segments. Our outlook for the year has improved, driven by the strength in utility structures as well as solid execution in the first quarter. At the midpoint of our guidance range, we anticipate revenues of $2.65 billion, up 6% year-over-year and adjusted EBITDA of $565 million, up 11% year-over-year. We expect margin to expand to a record 21.3%.
In Construction Products, we anticipate another record year of revenues and adjusted segment EBITDA. In our guidance range, we continue to expect mid-single-digit adjusted EBITDA growth for the segment. For the aggregates business, we are incorporating low single-digit volume growth and mid-single-digit pricing improvement consistent with our February guidance. On the cost side, we're managing increases in oil-related inputs. We're actively deploying fuel surcharges and loading fees in the aggregates operations to combat higher diesel costs and the asphalt pricing is indexed to changes in liquid AC. We're maintaining strong pricing discipline to support solid unit profitability gains consistent with actions we took to address high inflation.
Our 2026 outlook is underpinned by infrastructure and heavy nonresidential demand. In Texas, our largest market, we delivered above-average volume and pricing gains in the quarter, driven by healthy demand and favorable weather conditions in much of February and March. While highway lettings have been trending off peak levels recently in Texas, the outlook for state spending growth over the next several years is very positive. In New Jersey, our second largest regional market, the demand outlook is also favorable, as both the Department of Transportation and the Transit Authority have approved budget increases for 2026. We're ramping up for the spring construction season after a very cold start to the year. We believe there is pent-up demand as customers are ready to start their projects and make repairs caused by the harsh winter weather.
There is also progress in advancing a multiyear surface transportation reauthorization with initial language expected to be released by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee later this month. Within heavy nonresidential, volumes continue to benefit from data center development, reshoring activities in certain areas, and overall demand for new power generation. Additionally, we see continued momentum related to LNG opportunities in the Gulf Coast.
Residential remains challenged by affordability, and the recent rise in oil prices has weakened consumer confidence. With a soft start to the spring selling season, we see residential volume recovery pushing out to 2027, and anticipate flat to slightly down residential volume in aggregates this year. We service attractive markets and expect our footprint to benefit when the housing market recovers. In summary, our construction outlook continues to be supported by infrastructure and heavy nonresidential activity in 2026. With the winter season behind us, we're optimistic about a solid construction activity in the quarters ahead, led by healthy demand fundamentals in our largest markets.
Moving next to Engineered Structures. We had an excellent start to the year, exceeding expectations for the segment, with outperformance driven by utility structures, our largest business in the segment. Regarding the market outlook, conditions remain very healthy. As we have discussed before, the expansion of data centers and the rise in electricity consumption across the U.S. continues to drive a significant and sustained increase in power demand. Our utility customers have made large multiyear capital commitments to power investments along with ongoing efforts to modernize the grid. As a result, our backlog continues to increase and we are optimizing pricing.
We're successfully addressing the recently implemented steel tariffs. Previously, we were exempt from Section 232, as we source our steel from the U.S. for the manufacture of utility structures in Mexico to be sold in the U.S. Effective April 6, these imported structures are subject to a new 10% steel tariff on the full value of the finished products. We have contractual protection in place to effectively pass through the impact. We're optimistic that the joint review of the USMCA later this year will create certainty in the commercial relationships between U.S. and Mexico and avoid tariffs on products made in Mexico that comply with USMCA and are made of U.S. steel.
We're advancing several high-return investments in utility structures to align capacity with strong demand, while at the same time, focusing on efficiencies and throughput enhancements within our footprint. We're ahead of schedule with the conversion of the Illinois wind tower plant, which had been idle for several years to a utility pole plant. With critical equipment being installed and commercial success filling our backlog, we now expect to produce large utility poles from this facility by the end of the second quarter. Our new galvanizing facility in Mexico completed its first dip in April, and we should be commercially operational in the second quarter as well. Our expectations are that the expected cost savings from the galvanizing facility will help offset start-up costs in Illinois.
Additionally, planning continues for the transition of a second wind tower facility in Oklahoma to produce utility poles. In that plant, current wind tower backlog extends through 2027. We can run both product lines in parallel, and we expect to be moving our people to produce utility poles as wind tower orders are fulfilled. Within wind towers, which represent roughly 10% of full year total company revenues, the team performed well while transitioning to lower volumes. We now have 3 customers in our backlog with the orders received in the quarter, and we're planning for a volume recovery back to 2025 levels next year based on the backlog already in place.
With power demand rising and wind energy remaining competitive source of generation, we're optimistic that there will be demand for wind towers after the tax credits expire. With 2 of our 4 wind tower plants under active conversion to produce utility structures, Arcosa will be well positioned to deliver strong returns on the capital invested in the wind business while retaining a great optionality to further expand capacity for utility poles if demand continues to strengthen. Our first quarter beat and guidance raise highlights the significant strength in utility structures that serve as a backbone of the grid modernization.
Electricity demand is expanding at a pace not seen in a generation. We now anticipate segment adjusted EBITDA growth of approximately 10% at the midpoint of our guidance range with utility structures more than compensating for a transition year in wind towers. As it relates to our capital allocation priorities, we have an active pipeline of additional bolt-on opportunities, both in natural and recycled aggregates, and expect to deploy capital towards the highest value opportunities. While not reflected in our midpoint of our guidance, we are confident that we can execute on several bolt-ons this year.
In closing, we're entering the second quarter with strong momentum and improved balance sheet and additional confidence underpinned by increasing our guidance. The divestiture of our barge business is a significant milestone in our company's evolution and will sharpen our focus on our key growth businesses. We remain proactive in our value creation strategy and are always seeking for ways to deliver more value for our stakeholders. I'm extremely proud of our team's excellent start to the year. We're now ready for your questions.
[Operator Instructions] And we'll take our first question from Julio Romero with Sidoti & Company.
2. Question Answer
So on utility structures and maybe the Engineered Structures segment overall, the segment margins are very strong here in the first quarter, at a record level, I believe. Can you just help us understand what's driving the margin strength, particularly how much of that is driven by utility structures? And just help us think about how sustainable that margin performance is for the balance of '26?
So let me give you some color. I think we mentioned in our scripts, but the 2 businesses, let's say, it's a K-shape segment. Utility structures are going up pretty significantly. And as we've mentioned before, we expect the wind to come down given that we see 2026 as a transition year. So utility structures has been overcompensating for the reduction in wind. As Gail mentioned, our revenues went up over 15% in the quarter. And margins were extremely strong. Our team performed incredibly well. As volumes come up and we've been able to tweak our capacity across our footprint, the margin has continued to go up. So it was mainly driven by utility structures.
On the wind side, I also mentioned we expect this to be a transition year. In the second half of the year, we're going to start ramping up, because we already have the backlog in 2027 to go back to 2026 (sic) [ 2025 ] levels. So ideally, as the year goes by, we should continue to see utility structures continue to perform and accelerate, and wind should, at the end of the year, start accelerating to be able to fulfill our strong 2027 backlog.
And Julio, I think you asked for some guidance as we look forward in the sustainability of the margin. As you pointed out, the segment did report record margins in the quarter. So fantastic performance. Really, all the businesses were in line with our expectations and the outperformance was utility driven. So as we look through the balance of the year, we have raised our margin expectations for the year versus where we were here in February. You can see that in the guide with the EBITDA. The incremental margin on that EBITDA raise is pretty strong.
So we do have some -- we are ramping up our Clinton, as we mentioned, that will be operational at the end of the second quarter. But we do still have some start-up costs that we'll incur in Q2, along with some continuing start-up costs on the galvanizer. Those will probably hit their peak level in Q2 before they start abating in the back half of the year. So a long-winded way of saying our margin expectation for this segment has increased, and we would see an annual margin in the 20% range sustainable for the year.
Excellent. Really helpful there. And then second question is, you mentioned that customer reservations for utility structures, which aren't included in the backlog, are also robust. Can you maybe expand on that commentary and how those have been trending relative to historical?
And then kind of related to that, you also mentioned in the script about advancing several high-return investments related to capacity and utility structures. Does that go beyond the current conversions of Illinois and Tulsa? Yes, that's my 2-part question there.
Let me start with the first one. As we've always said, we have long-term contracts with our customers. And as our customers' utilities determine exactly what they need, the designs on the poles, et cetera, that's when we include them in our backlog. So as our backlog grows, normally, the reservations also grow. Normally, the reservation piece is about the same size as our backlog. This time, it's probably a little smaller, because we have some additional orders that were outside of our normal contracts. But they normally grow in parallel, both the backlog and the reservations. And we continue to see very strong demand and very strong customer sentiment on what's coming. So very excited about what we're seeing on utility structures.
On the 2 main projects that we have, which are the conversion of the 2 plants and the galvanizing -- 3 projects, 2 conversions and the galvanizing, those are the main projects in utility structures. We do have a lot of smaller projects that Gail mentioned in her script that we are trying to maximize our throughput in our plants; for 2 things, one is to maximize the margin profile of the products we are producing in a very tight market; and second, to try to increase our throughput. So lots of small projects in addition to the large projects.
We'll move next to Trey Grooms with Stephens.
This is Ethan on for Trey. Great job on the quarter. I wanted to touch on maybe your cost outlook. Any more detail on how to think about the energy exposure across your Construction Products business, how you're navigating that? And any expectations on timing impacts on the margin as we progress through the year, and perhaps in the Engineered Structures business as well, any other inflationary inputs that you're looking at would be great.
Sure. I'll give you conceptually and let Gail give you some numbers. So we use between 10 million and 11 million gallons of diesel in the footprint. And what we've been doing since this conflict started is passing through fuel surcharges and loading fees. So I think we have taken all the actions that we need to take to mitigate all these impacts. And I think we're in good shape. That's on the construction side. On the utility structures and wind, the impact is negligible. We don't have a lot of exposure to diesel. Our main exposure is natural gas. And as you've seen, natural gas, it went up a little bit, but it hasn't had a huge impact. So we don't expect a significant amount of impact there. And I'll let Gail give you some more color.
Yes. And Antonio mentioned the consumption that we have in aggregates, which is obviously clearly our most intensive diesel user. And so we've seen -- as you've heard from others, we didn't see much impact in Q1 as prices started to spike in March. But we're seeing diesel prices up about $1.50 a gallon in our footprint. So if these prices remained at this elevated level, we'd estimate about a 4% to 5% headwind to cash unit profitability for 2026, and that's unabated. So as Antonio just discussed, we have actively implemented surcharges and steps to mitigate that impact. So happy to provide any more color.
A couple of additional comments. I mentioned in my script, but we only have one large operation for asphalt in the Northeast, and our prices are indexed to liquid AC costs. So that's something that we're covered. So overall, I think we are in good shape. One more thing that differentiates Arcosa from many of the peers. We don't have ready-mix. We don't distribute our products. We don't deliver them. For the most part, the diesel is consumed inside our facilities. We don't have a large footprint in trucks delivering asphalt or aggregates or ready-mix or cement or anything like that. So we are, I think, a lot more insulated.
Got it. That's all very helpful color. So I appreciate that. And maybe shifting gears a little bit back to utility structures. At a higher level, how long of a tail do you think that this level of utility power demand has? I mean you mentioned in the prepared remarks that some of these contracts extend into 2028. So how long of a tail do you think this has? And of course, what are you seeing here that gives you confidence in raising the guide here in the earlier part of the year?
Yes. Let me start with your second question. We're raising the guide for 2 reasons. Performance has been very good. But we have the backlog already in place to support our guidance. So we have a lot of confidence in what our team is doing, and we have the orders to support our guidance. So that's on the guidance piece.
On what gives us confidence? So when you look at -- let's go back 7 years, 6 years, there's always this forecast of investment by utilities in the grid. And the forecast has been strong. And that's why we, 8 years ago, almost when we spun off, we decided this was going to be one of our growth businesses, because we saw significant investment in utility infrastructure that was coming and it was coming fast. But what has happened is that every year since then, things have gotten, let's say, more optimistic about the amount of investment going into the grid. And then AI came and that simply, let's say, supercharged the demand for transmission towers and the investment companies have to do to support growth in power demand.
So things have gotten -- they were already looking good and they have gotten better. We recently did market studies to support our expansions. We are not doing them blindly. We talk to our customers. We ask about their demand. We ask about their forecast for the next several years. And our forecast suggests that this has a very long tailwind of sustained demand for many years to come. So I think we're in a really strong position.
We'll move next to Min Cho with Texas Capital Securities.
First, on the utility structures, Gail, can you break out kind of price versus volume in the quarter? And maybe talk to any change in mix in terms of larger structures or anything like that, that we should be aware of?
Sure. As we said, we had north of 15% revenue growth in the quarter within the utility structures product line. And really a combination of very favorable volume and price, I would say, with a tilt towards volume, but both are -- just based on the demand environment right now, we're getting a tailwind from both sides of the equation.
Product mix, we've done a good job, I would say, from the margin lift with the increase in efficiencies and throughput. We've really worked through, I guess I could say it was lower-priced product, but the market is pretty attractive right now to be able to pull forward some of the improved price in our backlog. So you saw that in the margin lift as well. Maybe I'd turn it to Antonio just to give you some color on the product type and what's driving demand right now, but we're certainly seeing a movement towards larger tower structures as the increased need for transmission expands.
Yes. So I'll give you color. I think what we've seen over the last several years is a trend toward larger poles. And I would say that's our sweet spot. As a company, we pride ourselves in our engineering capacity and capabilities. And I think that's what our customers value. When you go to smaller poles, they're simpler, they're easier to make, and margins in general are lower. We've seen a large move towards larger poles, and that's our sweet spot. And that's why I think Arcosa is in a very strong position, because we are transitioning from a -- we're in a transition year for wind towers. And those towers, as you know, wind towers are very large. So the plants are very nicely suited to transform them into larger utility pole plants, which is what the market needs. And that's what we're doing right now, transforming plants that we had already in place to utility poles.
As we move forward, we are very confident in our ability to ramp up Illinois. That's what we do for a living, and then transform Tulsa into another transmission tower plant. And by 2028, we'll only have 2 wind tower plants left, which gives us great optionality. If the utility pole market continues to accelerate, we'll have a lot of optionality to add capacity if the market continues to grow in that way.
Excellent. And I know there's been a push or there's been a lot of discussion about the 765 kV transmission lines, which typically require like larger lattice towers. And I believe Meyer has experience with those towers. But do you have the capability and capacity to be able to produce these types of towers for these extra high-voltage lines?
Yes. For the most part, those lines, as you said, have been lattice. As you know, most of the lattice towers are imported. There's a couple of people developing capacity here in the U.S., but for the most part, they are imported. We have the engineering capability to do it and are working on it, but we have not sold those towers in the past. But we are actively working with customers on designing and developing them. And the plants we have converted, the wind tower plants, have capabilities to build those poles if we get to that point. So I think that's one of the things that Meyer, which is our brand for utility poles, is extremely well suited for those changes that are coming, and we're actively pushing for it.
Excellent. Let's see. I know that you -- obviously, congratulations on the barge sale, strengthened your leverage here. How are you prioritizing your incremental cash? I know that you mentioned M&A and obviously, you're doing the conversions. But if you can just kind of talk about your prioritization there. And I also saw the share repurchases this quarter. So that would be helpful.
The share repurchases are normally just opportunistic. We normally try to compensate for the compensation dilution. It's not our main capital deployment. We have no plans to increase our dividend at the moment. We've kept it flat for a long time now. And the reason is we always say that we have more ideas than money, which is a sign of a healthy company. We have a robust pipeline of bolt-on opportunities, both on the aggregates and recycled aggregates, and that's always been our priority on the inorganic side. And on the utility structures, it's mainly an organic story.
We have a lot of opportunities to continue to deploy capital there. So those are our 2 priorities. How do we continue to increase our footprint on natural aggregates and recycled aggregates, in great locations, with accretive margins, like the acquisition we announced in the first quarter in Florida. And then on the second side is continue to accelerate our transmission tower expansion, so that we can keep up with the market. So I think we have opportunities to deploy the capital. You will see us pay. Gail mentioned, we paid, I think, $83 million in April for our debt. So we will continue to manage our leverage profile as we see fit.
And it does appear that there are no further questions at this time. Thank you. This brings us to the end of today's meeting. We appreciate your time and participation. You may now disconnect.
Arcosa Inc — Q1 2026 Earnings Call
Arcosa Inc — Q4 2025 Earnings Call
1. Management Discussion
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Arcosa, Inc. Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2025 Earnings Conference Call. My name is Chloe and I will be your conference call coordinator today. As a reminder, today's call is being recorded.
Now I would like to turn the call over to your host, Erin Drabek, Vice President of Investor Relations for Arcosa. Ms. Drabek, you may begin.
Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining Arcosa's Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2025 Earnings Call. With me today are Antonio Carrillo, President and CEO; and Gail Peck, CFO. A question-and-answer session will follow their prepared remarks.
A copy of the press release issued yesterday and the slide presentation for this morning's call are posted on our Investor Relations website, ir.arcosa.com. A replay of today's call will be available for the next 2 weeks. Instructions for accessing the replay number are included in the press release. A replay of the webcast will be available for 1 year on our website under the News and Events tab.
Today's comments and presentation slides contain financial measures that have not been prepared in accordance with GAAP. Reconciliations of the non-GAAP financial measures to the closest GAAP measure are included in the appendix of the slide presentation. In addition, today's conference call contains forward-looking statements as defined by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from such forward-looking statements. Please refer to the company's SEC filings for more information on these risks and uncertainties, including the press release we filed yesterday and our Form 10-K expected to be filed later today.
I would now like to turn the call over to Antonio.
Thank you, Erin. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for a discussion of our Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2025 Results and 2026 Outlook.
2025 was an outstanding year for Arcosa, demonstrated by our exceptional financial performance and significant advancement of our strategic transformation. Our key growth businesses, Construction Materials and Engineered Structures drove year-over-year growth supported by cyclical expansion in both barge and wind towers. For the full year, we achieved record revenues of $2.9 billion, up 12%, record adjusted EBITDA of $583 million, up 30% and record adjusted EBITDA margin of 20.2%, up 280 basis points. Importantly, we accomplished these results safely, recording the lowest annual safety incident rate in Arcosa's history.
Our expanded disclosures further highlight the momentum underpinning our key growth businesses. Within Construction Products, we began separately disclosing revenues and unit statistics for the aggregates business, representing approximately 60% of our construction materials revenues, aggregates achieved 10% growth in cash unit profitability in 2025, led by strong pricing gains and the accretive impact of Stavola. Within Engineered Structures, we separated our revenue and backlog disclosures for utility and related structures and wind towers. This better highlights the underlying strength within utility structures where backlog levels remained at or near record highs throughout the year, supported by robust end market demand. We exited 2025 with great momentum.
Fourth quarter adjusted EBITDA increased 13% and margin expanded 90 basis points, with all segments contributing. Our earnings strength and positive cash flow enhanced our balance sheet and we ended the year comfortably within our long-term leverage target. Overall, I'm extremely proud of the dedication and contribution of the entire team.
Earlier this week, we announced that we entered into a definitive agreement to sell our barge business for $450 million in cash. With a strong backlog that provides production visibility deep into 2026 and market fundamentals supporting a healthy replacement cycle, we believe this is the right time to transition the barge business to an owner aligned with its long-term growth plans. We expect the sale to close in the second quarter of 2026, subject to regulatory approval and other customary closing conditions.
I want to thank our talented leadership team, dedicated employees and long-standing customers for their significant contributions to Arcosa Marine. The barge transaction further reduces portfolio complexity and cyclicality, raises our overall margin profile and enhances the long-term resiliency of the company. Upon completion of the divestiture, Arcosa will be fully focused on construction materials and engineered structures well -- both well aligned to benefit from long-term infrastructure and power market tailwinds in the U.S.
Before Gail goes over our financials in more detail, I want to acknowledge Jesse Collins. Jesse, who has served as Group President of Arcosa since our spin-off will be retiring in a few weeks and his strategic insight and commitment have helped shape our success and strengthening our foundation for the future. We thank him for his outstanding service and congratulate him on his retirement.
I will now turn over the call to Gail to discuss our fourth quarter segment results in more detail.
Thank you, Antonio, and good morning. Starting with Construction Products, fourth quarter segment revenues decreased 2%, excluding freight, which is a pass-through in our construction materials business, revenues increased 4%, adjusted segment EBITDA grew 3% and margin expanded 140 basis points. On a freight-adjusted basis, adjusted segment EBITDA margin was roughly flat.
As a reminder, segment performance this quarter is all organic as Stavola hit its 1-year anniversary on October 1 at the start of the quarter. For aggregates, freight-adjusted revenues increased roughly 8% driven by 5% pricing growth and 2% volume improvement. Two consecutive quarters of volume growth give us optimism on continued volume recovery in 2026. Adjusted cash gross profit increased 6% and adjusted cash gross profit per ton increased 3%. Many of our regions had double-digit growth in unit profitability, particularly our natural aggregates and stabilized sand operations in Texas and our aggregates operation in the East region. This performance, however, was partially offset by lower unit profitability in our Gulf region which was impacted by less favorable product mix and the West region, which had lower cost absorption on declining production volumes as we align inventory levels to domain.
For the full year, volumes increased 6% due to the inorganic contribution from Stavola, and organic volume improvement in the back half of the year, partially compensating for first half weather challenges. Full year freight-adjusted sales price grew 8% and adjusted cash gross profit per ton increased 10%, led by the accretive impact from Stavola.
Turning to Specialty Materials and Asphalt. Revenues decreased 5%, primarily due to lower freight revenue for asphalt. Excluding freight, revenues were roughly flat, while adjusted EBITDA and margin declined slightly. Within Specialty Materials, strong profitability gains in lightweight aggregates were offset by volume-related decline in our specialty plaster business. In our asphalt business, revenues increased slightly as solid pricing gains offset lower volumes, resulting in modest unit profitability gains. Finally, revenues and adjusted EBITDA for our trench shoring business saw a double-digit increase year-over-year and had strong margin expansion driven by higher volumes and improved operating leverage.
Moving to Engineered Structures, segment revenues increased 15%, led by a 20% increase for our utility and related structures businesses, while wind tower revenue increased 3%. For utility structures, volumes increased double digits, while pricing was up high single digits. Steel pass-through was roughly flat year-over-year. Adjusted segment EBITDA increased 22% and margin expanded 100 basis points to 18.5%, driven by strong revenue growth and operating efficiencies in utility structures. This business executed well throughout the year, resulting in sequential margin improvement in each quarter of 2025.
For wind towers, adjusted EBITDA was roughly flat as we focused on rightsizing the business for lower production levels in 2026, resulting in a slight decline in margin year-over-year for the business. We ended the year with backlog for utility and related structures of $435 million, up 5% from the start of the year, providing solid visibility for 2026. Customer reservations for utility structures, which have not yet hit backlog remains strong, providing additional confidence in the demand outlook. For wind towers, we received orders of $190 million during the quarter, primarily for 2027 delivery. We ended the year with backlog of $628 million and expect to recognize 42% in 2026 and 53% in 2027.
Turning to Transportation Products. Revenues were up 19%, and adjusted segment EBITDA increased 24%, primarily due to higher tank barge volumes and a more favorable mix, resulting in 90 basis points of margin expansion building on the meaningful improvement delivered in the prior year.
I'll now provide some comments on our cash flow performance and improved balance sheet positions. During the quarter, we generated $120 million of operating cash flow. As expected, this is down from last year's fourth quarter, which benefited from significant customer deposits in our wind tower and barge businesses for shipments delivering in 2025. Excluding advanced billings, which can be uneven, net working capital days have improved sequentially each quarter in 2025 as we remain very focused on cash management.
CapEx for the fourth quarter was $64 million, resulting in full year CapEx of $166 million, which was above the high end of our guidance range. The increase was driven by deposits placed on some long lead time equipment and the timing of spend on the wind tower plant conversion within our utility structures business. Free cash flow for the quarter was roughly $60 million and was $202 million for the full year. Our strong free cash flow generation in the second half of the year allowed us to repay $164 million of the term loan debt during the year, which is prepayable at no cost. We ended the year with net debt to adjusted EBITDA of 2.3x comfortably within our target leverage range. This is down from 2.9x at the start of the year. Our liquidity remains strong at $915 million, including full availability under our $700 million revolver and we have no near-term debt maturities.
We are pleased to have achieved our leverage goal to quarters ahead of schedule and are focused on balanced capital allocation. For the full year 2026, we expect CapEx to be between $220 million and $250 million. Our guidance includes $70 million to $80 million of growth CapEx and $150 million to $170 million of maintenance CapEx, including approximately $25 million of plant moves and IT-related initiatives in Construction Materials.
Within the growth category, we have a good mix of projects within Construction Materials and Engineered Structures the largest of which is the conversion of our Illinois wind tower plant. We anticipate the cadence of spending to be more first half weighted based on the expected project time lines.
I'll wrap up with a few final comments for modeling purposes. For the full year, we expect depreciation, depletion and amortization expense to range from $230 million to $240 million, slightly ahead of the annualized fourth quarter run rate as we expect to complete and capitalize large projects. Net interest expense is expected to range from $88 million to $90 million down from $102 million last year, primarily reflecting debt reduction that occurred in 2025 and opportunistic debt paydown in 2026. For 2026, we expect an effective tax rate of 17.5% to 19.5%. We will update this guidance as needed following the anticipated close of the barge divestiture.
I will now turn the call back to Antonio for more discussion on our 2026 outlook.
Thank you, Gail. For 2026, we anticipate revenues to be in the range of $2.95 billion to $3.1 billion and adjusted EBITDA to be in the range of $590 million to $640 million, excluding any impact from the barge divestiture. As outlined in the earnings press release, our guidance for barge includes full year revenues of $410 million to $430 million and adjusted EBITDA of $70 million to $75 million. We will update our full year guidance once the divestiture closes.
Our 2026 guidance incorporates another record year for our growth businesses, Construction Materials and Engineered Structures. With combined double-digit adjusted EBITDA growth and margin uplift. At the same time, we expect a short-term step-down in wind towers before recovering in 2027.
In our outlook comments today, we will focus on the Construction Products and Engineered Structures segments. Beginning with our first quarter 2026 results, we expect to eliminate segment reporting for transportation products and report results for the barge business as discontinued operations.
In Construction Products, we anticipate another record year of revenues and adjusted EBITDA. In our guidance range, we anticipate mid- to high single-digit adjusted EBITDA growth. For the aggregates business, we anticipate low single-digit volume growth and mid-single-digit pricing improvement. With our cost expectations generally in line with inflation, we anticipate solid gains in aggregate unit profitability. Our outlook is supported by solid infrastructure demand, which drives roughly 45% of our segment revenues. [ IIA ] funding, combined with strong state fiscal health is expected to support volume growth in 2026. Roughly half of the [ IIA ] funding has not been spent and there is progress on advancing a multiyear surface transportation reauthorization.
Our Shoring Products business has record backlog, a positive indicator of the underlying infrastructure demand. In Texas, our largest natural average and lightweight market, public infrastructure demand remains fundamentally healthy while highway lettings have been trending of off peak levels. The outlook for state spending growth over the next several years is very positive and remains at historically elevated levels. In New Jersey, our second largest regional exposure, the demand outlook is also favorable as both the Department of Transportation and the Transit Authority have approved budget increases for 2026.
As a reminder, Stavola operations are highly skewed to infrastructure and replacements. Our Stavola operations performed very well in 2025, and we anticipate a solid year of growth in 2026. Stavola has had an additional seasonality to our results, particularly in the first quarter. We anticipate that impact to be slightly more pronounced this year as the Northeast has been affected by very cold temperatures and significant stone hold in the first quarter.
Turning to private nonresidential market, volumes continue to benefit from data center development, reshoring activity in certain areas and overall demand for new power generation. Additionally, we are optimistic about future LNG opportunities. Residential remains challenged by affordability and our outlook incorporates flat residential volume in aggregates. While we continue to experience positive activity in Texas, particularly in the Houston market, residential volumes remained weak overall, notably in the Phoenix and Florida markets.
In our Specialty Plaster business, which serves multifamily construction, we anticipate a stronger second half of the year based on customer backlog and sentiment. Given we're an attractive state for residential development, we expect our businesses to benefit when housing market recovers.
Moving next to Engineered Structures. Our businesses play a pivotal role in strengthening the American infrastructure from wind towers that support much-needed new power generation to utilities constructions that connect energy to the grid and lighting traffic and telecom structures that address basic infrastructure needs of our expanding nation. As I've said before, we believe our Engineered Structures platform is strategically positioned to capitalize on attractive long-term trends.
Turning to U.S. power industry. the expansion of data centers and the rising electricity consumption across the U.S. continues to drive a significant and sustained increase in power demand. Multiyear capital plans underscore our utility customers' commitment to significant power investments, along with ongoing efforts to modernize the grid. During 2025, we maintained at or near record backlog levels for our utility structures and the outlook remains very positive. Industry capacity is constrained, lead times are extended, and we're optimizing pricing and focusing on operational excellence. We're making solid progress on the conversion of our idled wind tower facility in Illinois to produce large utility pole and expect to be operational in the second half of 2026. Additionally, we have placed deposits on long lead equipment -- long lead time equipment to maximize output in our existing plants. Our new galvanizing facility in Mexico will complete its first dip this quarter, which will allow us to improve our cost structure and help offset start-up costs in Illinois for this year.
For 2026, we anticipate another year of strong double-digit adjusted EBITDA growth and higher margins. Meeting expanding [indiscernible] power needs will regard leveraging all available sources of power generation. Cost competitive wind energy can play a critical role in meeting future energy needs quickly and efficiently. We remain optimistic about the long-term demand for wind towers despite near-term policy uncertainty impacting our anticipated volume for 2026.
During the fourth quarter, we received wind tower orders for $190 million primarily for 2027 delivery coupled with orders we received in the third quarter of 2025 and the shift forward of 2028 backlog, we have solid production visibility in 2026, but have reduced volumes from 2025. At December 31, our wind tower backlog scheduled for 2026 was $260 million, indicating a decrease of roughly 25% in anticipated wind tower revenues. Importantly, we expect to return to growth in 2027 supported by our current backlog for that year of $330 million. There is still time remaining in the year to book additional 2026 orders where our customers are focused on '27 and beyond.
Factoring in competitor announcements and potential for additional moves, third-party research estimates a capacity shortfall existing in 2027 for utility structures. The flexible and strategically located network of facilities within our Engineered Structures platforms provides us with the ability to adapt and increase capacity quickly without significant capital investments. As a result, we're currently preparing for a transition of our Tulsa Oklahoma facility from wind towers to utility structures. At Tulsa, our window backlog stretches through 2027, and we have the ability in that facility to run both product lines in parallel, as when tower orders are being finished, we will be moving our people to produce utility poles, reducing our wind tower capacity to 2 facilities rightsized the business and redirect our resources to the higher multiple, higher-margin utility structures business with a sustained runway for growth.
As it relates to our capital allocation priorities, we're focused on investing in our growth businesses, both organically and through acquisitions. We have an active pipeline of additional bolt-on opportunities, both in natural and recycled aggregates and expect to deploy capital towards the highest value opportunities. We also anticipate reducing debt in the interim to lower interest expense or on [indiscernible] $700 million revolver provides ample additional liquidity.
In closing, we entered 2026 as a more resilient company. The divestiture of our barge business, a significant milestone in our company's evolution and will sharpen our focus on our key growth businesses, construction materials and engineered structures. We will be -- we will now move from our transformation phase to being completely focused on growth as we look to create additional value for our shareholders.
We're now ready for your questions.
[Operator Instructions] We'll move first to Ian Zaffino with Oppenheimer.
2. Question Answer
Congratulations on the barge sale. Now as far as the proceeds, how are you thinking about redeploying those? What areas and maybe geographies or any other kind of color you could give us on that and kind of the multiples you're seeing out there, do you intend to use that...
So let me give you color on that. As Gail mentioned in her script, first, I think we have -- once we close this transaction, and we expect it to be in the second quarter. I think there might be some debt reduction in the short term. And then after that, we have a very active pipeline of opportunities for M&A. Right now, we're looking at mostly within our current footprint, but we do have some opportunities that take us some new MSAs that we are not present. And again, M&A, as mentioned in the past, has no timing because these things are sometimes take time and mostly our family on businesses. So it takes time to get there.
But we have a really active pipeline in both our current MSAs and a few new ones. And that would be our primary focus to try to accelerate our M&A pipeline, mainly bolt-on acquisitions. These are not enormous things. And I think that's -- I've mentioned before, I think the bolt-on is where we really get excited about the margin expansion.
We also have significant organic CapEx going on. We have Gail mentioned a few plant movements within our aggregates business, more reserves. We have finishing the Illinois facility, the galvanizing facility. I just announced that the -- that we're transitioning our Tulsa facility from wind towers to transmission over time as we finish our wind tower orders, but that facility is very large and has the ability to do both product lines.
So I think the big message here is now that we're a simpler company, we will focus our full attention into deploying the capital to generate additional value for our shareholders through both inorganic and organic opportunities.
Okay. Thanks...
We're losing you Ian.
What should we expect there? Because I know we're pretty close to being almost exclusively not cyclical at this point. But any other kind of moves that you intend to do or not do and what should we expect going forward?
The business we've talked in the past about is that the cyclical business that we are left with is the wind power business. As you know, current policy uncertainty makes it -- we need to get through the noise. I mentioned in my remarks that we're very optimistic about the future of the wind industry because it's -- as I've told investors many times for the first time since we've been building wind towers, we actually need them. The power demand increase is real. And so I think I'm optimistic about wind.
I mentioned in my remarks, we expect a slower '26, will return to higher volumes in '27. As we enter '28, that's where we need to start focusing on '28 and beyond. But at the same time, we recognize the policy uncertainty. And at the same time, we have another business that is growing fast, which is the utility structures, and that's why the transition from Arcosa facility to more utilities because I think there's some uncertainty.
I will tell you, as we get into '27, let's see, I'm very optimistic about '28 and beyond for wind. But rightsizing the business to 2 facilities really reduces our exposure and if the wind industry recovers fast, we'll see what we do. But for the moment, we'll be very, very focused on growing in utility structures. Long answer to your short question.
We'll move next to Trey Grooms with Stephens.
This is Ethan on for Trey. Starting off with utility structures, clearly expected to be a pretty large growth driver in 2026. Revenue was up 20% in the fourth quarter, so the magnitude of growth here is pretty impressive. And guide seems to imply pretty solid double-digit EBITDA growth. So just curious if this may help offset what is expected to be lower volume and profit in wind in 2026? And perhaps any more color on the growth or demand expectations for utility structures in 2026?
Yes. This is Gail. I'll kind of take the first part of that question as it relates to -- I think you're correctly identifying a lot of underlying strength within the utility structures. And as we look to 2026 and think about our guidance for the Engineered Structures segment, we do see a path to that strong utility compensating for the step down in wind. We gave rough estimate for where we are right now for wind backlog, which translates to revenues for 2026. So you do see roughly 25% step-down in wind revenues. But given where we are with utility and the strength of the double-digit volume increases and pricing increases that we've had, and as I said in my script, we saw margin expansion for utility in every quarter year-over-year throughout 2025. And so we have strong expectations for the business next year. And we see a path to flat to maybe slight growth within the segment for next year.
From the industry perspective, I think the numbers reflect what we're seeing in the industry. We're seeing very solid demand -- we're seeing very long lead times. We're seeing a move towards larger utility poles. And that is why we're moving our wind power facilities to utility poles. So the big picture for us is we're very excited about the industry. We have a very flexible footprint in our plants that allow us to move capacity towards the places where demand is stronger than at this time. Utility is really the strongest place, and we expect it to be -- the good news is we expect this to be a very long run for utilities. So this is not only '26. I think we're seeing a path towards a longer-term solid demand for utility structures for quite a while.
Got it. And on that topic of transitioning the idle wind tower facility to expand capacity in utility structures perhaps, how should we be thinking about layering in that incremental capacity relative to the market growth? And I know you touched on specific CapEx cadence for that transitioning. But any thoughts on maybe P&L implications of initial start-up costs would be great.
Yes. So I mentioned the first facility work transition, which is Clinton will start coming online in the second half of this year. And I mentioned also in my remarks that given our galvanizing facility in Mexico starting this quarter, we expect the savings from one facility to generally offset start-up costs of the other one. So we don't see a huge impact this year in our Illinois facility. And -- but it will start -- that facility already has orders and customers assigned to it. So we're going to be ramping up with relative certainty around 2027 being a year where the facility starts contributing to the bottom line.
The other facility, it's a longer-term process. I mentioned we have orders until 2027. So this is a 2028 and beyond impact. And the ramp-up in that facility will be a lot smoother because if you think about the first facility was idle. So we have -- we are hiring people, we're training people and everything. The other facility is a much easier transition because we always have people, which is the hardest thing to get and the most important resource for anyone of our facilities. So moving people that are already know how to weld and produce wind towers to transmission structures is a lot easier than hiring new people.
We'll move next to Garik Shmois with Loop Capital.
Just on the first quarter, I was wondering if you could maybe follow up a little bit more just on the observations around weather in the Northeast impacting Stavola, any additional perspective on Q1 and what the impact there is, whether it's from a production standpoint or if we should think about maybe the percentage of EBITDA in the first quarter relative to the full year, how that's looking to share versus historicals?
Sure. Good morning Garik, and thanks for the question, yes. It's been a cold and snowy quarter up in the Northeast, which has -- will likely impact the cadence of our Q1 as a percent of the total. I think if you look at last year, in Q1, Q1 EBITDA for the segment within construction was about 16% or so of the year. So it certainly is a smaller contributor to EBITDA for the year.
I would say, with the weather and the snow here recently, we'll see that percentage share drop just a little bit. So you won't see the same contribution as a percent of the whole, as you saw last year.
Okay. Makes sense. And then maybe just on gross profit per ton expectations in aggregates for 2026, certainly, Q4 had some headwinds due to fixed cost absorption in some of the Western markets, it sounds like. How should we think about gross profit per combo for the segment overall for this year?
Sure. As I said in my comments, with mid-single-digit price in the low single-digit volume and where we sit here today with expectations that, that costs are generally in line with inflation. We do see solid unit profitability gains on -- for 2026. The cadence of that is always a little bit uneven with the seasonality. Q1 will likely have a tough comp and unit profitability year-over-year. But for the full year, we expect solid gains in GP per ton.
We'll move next to Julio Romero with Sidoti & Company.
Congratulation to Jesse on his retirement. I wanted to ask about the slope of the accelerating demand in utility structures. You're allocating resources there. Illinois in 2026, Tulson in 2027. So could you dive a bit deeper into whether the acceleration in demand is being driven by a particular product line or geography? And then from an end-use perspective, Antonio, you said you're seeing demand skew towards larger utility pulls. Should we infer that to mean that demand is being driven primarily by new transmission work versus substation?
Yes. So let me -- I think the slope of -- we've seen over the last couple of years, slope, let's say, become more pronounced. And as we look at the backlogs and as we look at order intake and as we look at the -- the non-reported backlog, let's say, the reservations that our customers have, we see the need to accelerate our capacity expansion because our customers need it. And in this industry, like in every other one. If we don't do it, someone else is going to do it. So we need to be there for our customers.
If you remember, we are a company that has a significant share of our revenues tied to longer-term contracts. We have had very long-term relation with our customers. So they have the let's say, we have the obligation to respond to their needs. And that's really exciting to us. I will tell you, it's not a regional thing. I would say that what we've seen is all over the place. We see it all over the country. That's why one plant in Illinois, one plant in Tulsa give us further coverage.
So I would tell you the overall sentiment is very positive. Again, we didn't do this with just hopes to have a good demand. We had a market study by a third-party, analyzed utility investment over the next 5 to 10 years. And we see this slow continuing to accelerate at least from here to 2030. So that's something that we have to acknowledge and we have to plan for, and we have to be, of course, we have to review it frequently and make sure that every step we take has the basis to make the right choices and the right capital allocation. And we don't do it just based on our gut feeling. We have solid data behind our thinking, no.
Absolutely. Very helpful there. And on those customer reservations, I assume that some of your customers and utility structures that are seeing increased load requests, when those -- but a large load customer, like a hyperscaler commits to incremental capacity. Just talk about the timing from the load request to the utility planning to win maybe Arcosa see the revenue flow through on the P&L?
Yes. So first of all, our customers are mostly utilities. We have a few customers that are EPC and -- but for the most part, we don't sell -- we've not sold to a hyperscaler. So our customers are the people who supply to the power, to developers and hyperscalers and that kind of thing.
So I will tell you, it might take years. If right now, someone is trying to be the data center here in Dallas or in any of the locations around where our footprint is it might take 2, 3 years for us to start seeing any even noise around it. But it is important to your first question that I did not respond I think the move to higher larger poles that we've seen over the last couple of years has to do with that increase in loads in certain areas. I think has to do with permitting and it has to do with rights of way. It's easy to put a big pull rather than a lot of small poles, takes less space. And you see it also in the conversation of the 765 lines, a very large line.
So I think -- and also bigger lines with higher voltage have more resiliency -- add resiliency to the power to the grid. So I think it's -- the whole country is just reconfiguring to people who have higher loads, have higher demands and everyone is trying to adapt to that and we are part of the mix of that. But it might take us years to see from the [indiscernible] develops data center to the time we see the order.
We'll move next to Brent Thielman with D.A. Davidson.
Yes, on Engineered Structures, you've been in a pretty tight range of margins throughout 2025, and want to get a sense of whether you sorts of levels are sustainable into 2026. It sounds like you could have a bit of a different mix within the segment. Does that have a material impact through the year? Maybe just help us understand that piece.
Sure. Brent, I'll take that. Yes, it's a great question, kind of 2 different stories going on within Engineered Structures for 2026. Feel very comfortable with the visibility we have in wind. But with that revenue step down and some lost absorption, we will see a margin impact on the wind side. Does utility fully compensate for that margin impact? I think there's a chance there. I think we do see utility with good year-over-year progression in margin so I think the way I would say it right now is wind is going to have an impact for sure, and I think a path to flat margins for the segment looks achievable. But we'll have to see how the year progresses.
And just to add some color because I think it's -- I think there's a path. Again, it's a big client to get -- to compensate for that big of a drop in wind. But there's a path to get there. But let me give you the qualitative side of that. We're changing -- if we get close to it, the quality of our EBITDA in 2026 is going to be a lot better than 2025 because we're changing tax credit EBITDA for utility structures, EBITDA. So it's -- the quality of our EBITDA is going to be it better, I think, in 2026 and beyond as utility structures grows.
Okay. I guess as a follow-up, Antonio, you've been a patient seller with respect to the barge assets? I know it's been something that's been discussed for a long time and congrats on kind of getting something to the finish line here. Could we presume that you built up an M&A pipeline that you really want to act on. And now it's just the right time to get this done? Or I'm just trying to think around what finally got this to the finish line.
Yes. Well, I've mentioned it in the past, and it's a really good question. I mentioned M&A has its own timing. And we needed to get the barge to a point I've been -- I'm convinced that the buyer [ Wind Church Capital ] is going to do very well with this asset because it's the right spot to sell it. The backlog is there. The trends in the industry are really good and the replacement cycle is coming. I think they're going to have a really, really good business to run and I'm very excited for our team and for them to buy this business.
So the timing is right to sell it. It's hard to -- I mean, could it be better 6 months ago or a year from now, I can't tell you. I think right now, it's as good as we've seen it and that's why we waited to do it at the right time. There's a long runway for it. At the same time, we have been building our pipeline. And we are excited about some of the opportunities we have going on. I will tell you I'm excited about all these opportunities we have, at the same time, you've seen us act in the past. We're not going to do -- the money is not going to burn a hole in our pocket. We're not going to deploy capital to things that we don't think are the best that generate value for our investors. We're not going to pay incredibly high multiples that we cannot afford. We're going to be very disciplined in our capital allocation. And the goal is to build a pipeline that we can act on while at the same time, staying disciplined with our capital allocation. So we're going to be a disciplined capital allocator going forward, focused on growth.
Okay. One more, if I could, just with some of the investments you've made or making on the utility structure side, including the conversion of the wind facility, could you maybe level set us on how much revenue capacity comes on in 2026 or into 2027. Just trying to think about what you're doing internally and what that adds for you in terms of thinking about growth rates for utility structures.
Sure, Brent. I'll try to address that for you. I think in terms of 2026 as we've said on the conversion for the wind tower facility, that's the second half of the year where that's going to start contributing. And from a steel structure perspective or steel plant perspective, that would be our seventh steel utility pole plant. So that kind of gives you a sense of what type of capacity it is adding. But we would see that more of an impact certainly from a full year perspective in 2027.
The other investments we're making, as Antonio said, we've invested in a new galvanizing line down in Mexico, not a top line impact for that. That is a cost-saving initiative as we're bringing galvanizing in-house down in Mexico. So from a P&L perspective, as we ramp the Clinton facility in the U.S., the benefits from that galv cost savings should offset that ramp impact in 2026. So half year benefit from the top line perspective for that Clinton plant, and then you get the full year impact in 2027.
This does conclude the Q&A portion of today's event. And this also brings us to the end of today's meeting. We appreciate your time and participation. You may now disconnect.
Arcosa Inc — Q4 2025 Earnings Call
Arcosa Inc — Q3 2025 Earnings Call
1. Management Discussion
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Arcosa Third Quarter 2025 Earnings Conference Call. My name is Boe, and I will be your conference call coordinator today. As a reminder, today's call is being recorded.
Now I would like to turn the call over to your host, Ms. Erin Drabek, Vice President of Investor Relations for Arcosa. Please go ahead, Ms. Drabek.
Good morning, and thank you for joining Arcosa's Third Quarter 2025 Earnings Call. With me today are Antonio Carrillo, President and CEO; and Gail Peck, CFO. A question-and-answer session will follow their prepared remarks.
A copy of the press release issued yesterday and the slide presentation for this morning's call are posted on our Investor Relations website, ir.arcosa.com. A replay of today's call will be available for the next 2 weeks. Instructions for accessing the replay number are included in the press release. A replay of the webcast will be available for 1 year on our website under the News and Events tab.
Today's comments and presentation slides contain financial measures that have not been prepared in accordance with GAAP. Reconciliations of non-GAAP measures to the closest GAAP measure are included in the appendix of the slide presentation. In addition, today's conference call includes forward-looking statements as defined by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from such forward-looking statements. Please refer to the company's SEC filings for more information on these risks and uncertainties, including the press release we filed yesterday and our Form 10-Q expected to be filed later today.
I would now like to turn the call over to Antonio.
Thank you, Erin. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today for a discussion of our third quarter results and the outlook for the rest of the year.
Let me start with a few key takeaways on Slide 4. Q3 was a record quarter for Arcosa. We delivered double-digit revenue and adjusted EBITDA growth with all 3 segments contributing to our strong results. Revenue increased 27% and adjusted EBITDA grew 51%, both excluding the impact of the divested steel components business. Likewise, our record adjusted EBITDA margin of 21.8% was a 340 basis points improvement over the same period last year. We believe our third quarter performance is a testament to the strength of the portfolio optimization strategy we have undertaken over the past few years, highlighted by the accretive contribution of the $1.2 billion Stavola acquisition, which we closed a year ago.
The strength of our business model is underscored by the free cash flow generation and debt reduction we delivered during the third quarter. The team did a great job with particular focus on disciplined cash management. As a result, we ended the quarter with a leverage ratio of 2.4x, putting us 2 quarters ahead of our stated plan to return to our 2 to 2.5x leverage target within 18 months of the Stavola acquisition. We are extremely proud of this progress. Now that we are back within our target range, we will continue to take a balanced approach on capital allocation, investing in the business to drive growth while maintaining a healthy balance sheet.
Moving next to an update on our business units. Within Construction Products, third quarter adjusted segment EBITDA was a record $150 million and margin expanded 300 basis points. Stavola led our significant third quarter growth and was highly accretive to segment margin. The acquisition performed well in this first year, delivering $105 million in adjusted EBITDA, a 35.2% margin for the 12 months ending in September 30. Overall, we saw higher ASPs and higher volume in the aggregates business, leading to double-digit unit profitability gains.
Engineered Structures continues to deliver strong organic performance, benefiting from increased demand in our utility structures business and higher volumes in our wind tower business. In the third quarter, we increased adjusted EBITDA by 29%, expanding margins by 240 basis points. with significant tailwinds in the U.S. power market remains robust and our backlog in utility and related structures is at record levels. Additionally, we received new wind tower orders, improving our near-term production visibility while we wait for an anticipated uplift to demand in 2027 and beyond. The barge business executed well, generating double-digit revenue and adjusted EBITDA growth with margin increasing 190 basis points. Our barge backlog is up 16% year-to-date, and we have production visibility for both hopper and tank barges extending well into the second half of 2026.
Our outlook for the remainder of the year remains very positive. Overall, demand trends are favorable, and we believe our U.S.-focused operations are well aligned with long-term infrastructure and secular power market drivers. We have increased the midpoint of our 2025 adjusted EBITDA guidance range and anticipated 32% year-over-year growth, reflecting strong accretion from Stavola as well as double-digit organic expansion. To wrap up, the third quarter performance reflects steady progress in executing our strategic priorities. And with a stronger balance sheet, we're once again in a position to look at potential M&A opportunities as well as organic investments as we seek to further enhance long-term shareholder value.
I will now turn over the call to Gail to discuss our third quarter results in more detail. Gail?
Thank you, Antonio. Good morning, everyone. I'll start with Construction Products segment on Slide 10. Third quarter revenues increased 46% and adjusted segment EBITDA increased 62%, which reflects record quarterly performance for the segment. Margin expanded by 300 basis points to 29.7%. The growth was led by the accretive contribution from Stavola, which has now completed a full year with Arcosa.
For our aggregates business, freight-adjusted revenues increased 28% and adjusted cash gross profit increased 38% during the quarter, expanding margin by 330 basis points. Total volumes increased 18%, largely due to the addition of Stavola. We were pleased to see organic volume growth for the first time in several quarters as weather was generally favorable throughout the quarter. Monthly volume was relatively stable throughout the quarter, indicating steady market demand.
On a unit basis, freight-adjusted average sales price per ton increased 9% and adjusted cash gross profit per ton increased 17%. Organically, aggregates pricing was up mid-single digits. However, unit profitability declined compared to last year. The decrease was primarily due to production downtime at a few natural aggregates locations negatively impacting cost absorption during the quarter. The root causes largely related to unplanned equipment repairs have been addressed, positioning us for improved performance in the fourth quarter. Normalizing for the unabsorbed costs, organic adjusted EBITDA for aggregates would have been up mid-single digits for the quarter.
Turning to specialty materials and asphalt. Revenues more than doubled, primarily reflecting Stavola's asphalt business, which performed well during the quarter. In specialty materials, revenues increased high single digits as strong growth in lightweight aggregates was partially offset by a slight revenue decline in specialty plaster, which was comping against a strong volume quarter in the prior year period. Adjusted EBITDA and margin expanded year-over-year, both in total and on an organic basis. Finally, revenues and adjusted EBITDA increased in our trench shoring business, while margin declined slightly due to mix.
Moving to Engineered Structures on Slide 11. In the third quarter, segment revenues increased 11% with the contribution split between utility and related structures and wind towers. Within utility and related structures, which represented 69% of segment revenues, third quarter revenues increased 8% due to double-digit volume growth and mid-single-digit pricing expansion in utility structures, partially offset by lower steel price pass-through. Within wind towers, revenues increased 20% due to higher volumes from our New Mexico plant, which was ramping up production in the third quarter of last year.
Adjusted segment EBITDA increased 29% and margin expanded 240 basis points to 18.3%. The earnings growth and margin expansion were primarily driven by higher revenues and operating improvements in our utility structures business. We ended the quarter with a record backlog for utility and related structures of $462 million, up 11% year-to-date as we continue to see strong order activity. Our production visibility for this business is supported by our reported backlog as well as customer reservations for future capacity. For wind towers, we received orders of $57 million during the quarter, which improves our production visibility in 2026. We ended the quarter with backlog of $526 million, which also reflects the revaluation impact of adjusting backlog into 2026 from 2028.
Turning to Transportation Products on Slide 12. Inland barge revenues were up 22% and adjusted segment EBITDA increased 36%, excluding the divested steel components business from the prior year period. The growth was driven by higher tank barge volumes, while hopper barge volumes were roughly flat. Margin for the business improved by 190 basis points, primarily driven by improved mix and operating leverage in our tank barge operations. During the third quarter, barge orders totaled $148 million for both hopper and tank barges, reflecting a book-to-bill of 1.5. Our barge backlog at the end of the quarter totaled $326 million, an increase of 16% year-to-date, and our current production visibility extends well into the second half of 2026.
I'll now provide some comments on our cash flow performance and leverage position on Slide 13. Third quarter operating cash flow was $161 million, an increase of 19% year-over-year and up more than 150% sequentially as we planned for higher cash flow in the back half of the year. Working capital was a $23 million source of cash in the quarter even as revenues increased 25%. CapEx for the third quarter was $40 million, bringing year-to-date CapEx to $101 million, down $35 million year-over-year. For the full year, we continue to expect CapEx of $145 million to $155 million, which implies a slightly higher rate in the fourth quarter as we are investing in our plant conversion and placing deposits for long lead time equipment items within utility structures.
Free cash flow for the quarter was $134 million, an increase of 25% year-over-year. We allocated $100 million to reduce the outstanding balance on the Stavola acquisition term loan, which is prepayable with no penalty. As Antonio mentioned, we are pleased to achieve our stated leverage goal at an accelerated pace. We ended the quarter at 2.4x net debt to adjusted EBITDA. And looking ahead, we expect to remain within our target range. Our liquidity remains strong at $920 million, including full availability under our $700 million revolver, and we have no material near-term debt maturities.
I will now turn the call over to Antonio for an update on our outlook.
Thank you, Gail. I will now turn to Slide 15 to review our guidance. As evidenced by our third quarter and year-to-date results, the strategy we have executed for the last 7 years of allocating capital to our growth businesses, improving our cyclical businesses and simplifying the portfolio has created a resilient platform with significant long-term growth potential. Our portfolio is now strategically aligned around businesses with durable demand fundamentals and compelling end market positions. Our key growth businesses continue to demonstrate strong performance, while our cyclical businesses benefit from solid backlog visibility and a strong foundation for continued growth. Given our year-to-date performance and confidence in our outlook for the rest of the year, we have adjusted our full year 2025 guidance ranges, tightening forecasted revenues to a range of $2.86 billion to $2.91 billion and adjusted EBITDA to a range of $575 million to $585 million. At the increased midpoint, this implies 32% adjusted EBITDA growth in 2025, normalizing for the divestiture of steel components business.
Turning to Slide 16 for a discussion on our outlook for the business segments. Beginning with Construction Products, we're optimistic about the future, supported by attractive long-term demand fundamentals. Stavola continues to perform in line with expectations and the seasonally stronger second and third quarters demonstrated its premium financial attributes. Infrastructure demand drivers underpin the stability of Stavola's results, and we remain confident in the pipeline of work for both aggregates and asphalt in the New York, New Jersey market, now our second largest market.
In Texas, our largest aggregates market, public infrastructure demand remains fundamentally healthy. While highway lettings are trending off peak levels, the outlook for state spending growth over the next several years is very positive and remains at historically elevated levels. More broadly, we believe infrastructure is on solid footing, and we expect it to be a catalyst for 2026 volumes. In our shoring business, which serves early phase public and private infrastructure works, third quarter order activity was above last year's level and our customers remain confident. On the private side, we're encouraged by the secular nonresidential trends, including U.S. energy infrastructure build-out, onshoring activities and the data center investments.
Additionally, warehouse activity continues to positively inflect. Our construction materials platform is well located in favorable geographies with attractive population dynamics and long-term growth drivers that will benefit from a recovery in single-family housing. At the start of the year, we were hopeful to see an uptick in residential volumes in the back half of the year, but this has not materialized. With the recent Fed action and the potential for additional rate cuts, we now see a prospect of a single-family housing recovery in 2026. For full year 2025, we remain on track for high single-digit pricing growth in aggregates.
Turning to volumes. Year-to-date volumes were up 7%, benefiting from Stavola and offsetting mid-single-digit organic volume decline. Looking at the full year, we now expect high single-digit volume growth, a slight step down from our prior guidance. On the third quarter, we were encouraged by the reversal in declining organic volume trends and ended the quarter with strong volume growth in September. We expect modest fourth quarter volume growth, assuming normal weather and no adverse impacts from the government shutdown.
Moving next to Engineered Structures. I'll begin with a few comments on the U.S. power industry, which is the driver of our utility structures and wind tower businesses. The expansion of data centers and the rise in electricity consumption across the U.S. are driving significant and sustained increase in power demand. Meeting this growing need will require leveraging all available sources of power generation and significant investments in the transmission and distribution infrastructure. As I've said before, this is an exciting time to be serving the U.S. power industry, and we believe our Engineered Structures platform is strategically positioned to benefit in this new era of power growth.
Turning first to wind towers. Wind energy is now cost competitive with other major power sources, even in the absence of tax credits and can play a critical role in meeting future energy needs quickly and efficiently. We have received orders from 2 customers totaling approximately $117 million, of which $60 million were received after the quarter end. At the same time, we shifted a portion of our 2028 backlog into 2026. This improves our production visibility as we now have backlogs for all 3 facilities for '26 and '27. We're still early and continue to work with our customers on additional orders. What is important is that we have good visibility across our platform, and we have time to continue to work with our customers on production schedules that allows them to prepare for growth in 2027 and beyond.
Moving to utility structures. We continue to see accelerating demand underscored by our record backlog as utility customers continue to increase their investments in transmission and distribution infrastructure. During the third quarter, we made good progress in the conversion of our wind tower facility in Illinois to produce large utility poles. Production in this facility is scheduled to begin in the second half of 2026. We expect our new galvanizing facility in Mexico to complete its first dip in the first quarter of 2026, which will improve our cost structure and enhance margin. We remain confident in the durability of demand supported by long-term power trends, increased utility CapEx and the strategic network of alliance customers. As the utility market grows, the flexible and strategically located network of facilities within our Engineered Structures platform provides us with the ability to adapt and increase capacity without significant capital investments.
Turning to Transportation. The aging U.S. barge fleet creates a favorable replacement cycle, which is expected to extend over the next several years. Strong order activity in the third quarter has significantly improved our production visibility for 2026, extending beyond the typical outlook we have at this point of the year. This improved line of sight for both hopper and tank barges reinforces our confidence in sustained demand through the cycle. In closing, as we enter the fourth quarter and turn our attention to fiscal year '26, we remain confident in the strength and future potential of our core markets. With an optimized portfolio and favorable macro dynamics, we are positioned -- we have positioned Arcosa for sustained long-term growth and value creation while focusing on operational excellence and disciplined capital allocation.
We are now ready to take your questions.
[Operator Instructions] We'll go first this morning to Trey Grooms of Stephens.
2. Question Answer
Congrats on the great quarter. I guess, first off, you gave us some pretty good color, but I didn't know if maybe you could dive in a little bit more around the puts and takes around the full year revenue and EBITDA guidance adjustments or kind of just tightening those ranges a bit. Any more color you could give us on those puts and takes, please?
Sure. Trey, this is Gail. I'll take that. As you saw in our release and in our comments this morning, we made some adjustments to the full year guide with just 1 quarter left. It reflects the strong year-to-date performance that we've had through the first 9 months, and we expect a good quarter in Q4. So we tightened the revenue guidance just a little bit. I think that reflects a very small slight step down. That would be coming from construction as volumes -- on the organic side for the year have not been as strong as we would have thought at the start of the year. All that being said, slight adjustment to revenue, we're looking at strong double-digit revenue growth year-over-year.
On the EBITDA side, we did raise the midpoint about $10 million. We now see $580 million of EBITDA for the year. As Antonio said, that's 32% growth year-over-year. As we think about the fourth quarter, this will be our first quarter with 100% organic as Stavola has anniversaried in the third quarter. And we're seeing strong double-digit growth in the fourth quarter. It is a seasonal quarter for Construction. So you do see Q4 step down. We do have Stavola in the New York, New Jersey MSA, which is very weather-dependent in the fourth quarter. So you see some seasonality, a normal step down in Q4.
And we're really excited to close the year strong. We have excellent production visibility with our backlog on the manufacturing side. You do have 2 holidays in the fourth quarter, and sometimes that has an impact. But we're really excited to end the year strong, pleased to raise the midpoint of our guidance and conclude a very strong record year for Arcosa.
That's super helpful. Just kind of following up on that. On the Construction business, you mentioned some inefficiencies with some of your legacy aggregates businesses with some production downtime at a few locations. Is that going to continue into the fourth quarter? Is that playing a role at all? Or is that largely behind you?
Trey, it's Antonio. I think that's largely behind us. As you increase the number of facilities, and we're still -- we've grown a lot, but we're not the size of some of our larger peers. So 1 or 2 facilities that have a problem still reflects in our -- creates a little volatility for us. And that's what you saw. I think we're largely over that. And every day, we get better as a company, and that's what we try to do, become better every day.
If I could switch just to Engineered Structures, just real quick. The margins there, very impressive margin improvement. You mentioned pricing and some operating improvements in utility. So if you could maybe talk about some of those drivers and how you're thinking about the margin outlook and kind of sustainability of those margins as we look forward.
I'll take that, Trey. So when you look at what happened in the third quarter and what's been happening this year, both businesses, the wind tower business and the utility structures are performing very, very well. On utility structures -- I'm sorry, on wind, we started the year. We've been ramping the Belen facility in New Mexico last year. So when you compare -- last year, we had excess cost compared to this year. But overall, the team has done a fantastic job ramping up facilities. And we are very good at building wind towers when we have a continued -- a very, very steady production cycle, which is what we have right now. And that's why we're excited about the visibility we get with the new orders for 2026 and '27. It gives us very good line of sight.
On the utility structures, demand continues to be strong. We've been increasing our capacity. As Gail said, volume grew double digit, and we've been growing volume double digit for the last 7 years. So this is a very, very good run that we're getting in increasing capacity, and we've become good at it. Our plants run very well. As always, when you have a larger business, you have things that are always working well and sometimes they're not. We still have things that we need to improve in our business. We're not done. And so we have some plants that are doing better than others. But I'm very excited about where we are.
Our team is doing a very good job. And Gail mentioned, we have placed orders for additional equipment because we need to continue to expand our capacity. We will see going forward, the Illinois facility as we start hiring people will start going through its ramp-up. But it's part of the growing pains, and we're just excited with where we are.
And I might add, Trey, on to that, just coming back to the start of your question. And when you really look at the year-over-year growth, as Antonio said, wind was ramping, we finished that ramp earlier in the year. So the year-over-year growth is really coming from the strength in utility and related structures. So very pleased to see that. At nearly 70% of segment revenue, that's an important driver of our performance.
We go next now to Julio Romero at Sidoti & Company.
I wanted to start on Construction Products. Antonio, you mentioned for full year '25, you remain on track for high single-digit pricing growth in aggregates. Can you just talk about the pricing outlook within aggregates as we head into '26? And I'm not asking for guidance, but just kind of high-level thoughts there.
Sure. I think, as you know, this business is a very local business. And every one of our locations has different dynamics. But I think overall, we're positive about where we're seeing demand, especially on the infrastructure side. So I think as long as we continue having this -- and we mentioned that we had -- Gail mentioned in her script that we had consistent volumes during the quarter, which was a very good sign and recovering volume growth is a very important price of the pricing dynamic -- very important part of the pricing dynamic. We've been able to raise price throughout several quarters with volume declining.
Now that volume seems to be recovering, I think pricing should be something that we can continue to pass through to our customers. We are in really good locations, great geographies, and that also helps. And I think if we're able to get some recovery in '26, late '26, sometime on housing, that will help even more. So we're optimistic about where we are on pricing. We're optimistic about where we're seeing the volume based on what we saw in the third quarter. And I think we're in a really good position. And very important, I think Stavola really changed the dynamics of our business.
I might add, just, Julio, as you think about the cadence of pricing, we have full year pricing guide of high single digit for Arcosa in 2025. That's total pricing. We did indicate that organic pricing was up mid-single digit in the quarter. Stavola does anniversary. So fourth quarter will be all organic. So we do expect a slight step down to that year-over-year rate in the Q4 with somewhere near more of that organic rate that we achieved in Q3. So as we look to 2026, as Antonio said, we still see pricing trending on the high side of historical averages.
Okay. Very helpful there. And congratulations on reaching your target leverage 2 quarters ahead of schedule. You weren't kidding when you said you'd have cash flow accelerate in the second half here. Can you just talk about capital allocation going forward? How are you thinking about perhaps more debt reduction versus further growth initiatives?
Sure. So first of all, I think what you said is exactly how we thought about it. When we went through Stavola, it was a large acquisition for us, but we had a really good visibility on our cyclical businesses backlog and on the growth businesses performance. And that's what gave us the confidence to go for a larger acquisition. And that's why when we talk about our backlogs, the visibility is so important.
On capital allocation, we mentioned we want to keep our balance sheet. We want to continue to improve. Even though we are within our range, I personally would like to be lower in that range to have more flexibility as we move forward. So my goal would be to try to get lower in the range of 2 to 2.5x leverage. On the other hand, we are -- we've been working for the last several months on filling our pipeline of bolt-on acquisitions, and we are -- we have opportunities out there, and these things happen sometimes when you want them, sometimes when they just happen. So we now have the flexibility of taking advantage of those opportunities and continue to focus on bolt-on acquisitions, which have been very, very accretive to Arcosa numbers. So I want to continue doing that, both on the aggregates and the recycled aggregates.
On the organic growth side, we have opportunities. We're investing in the facility in Illinois to convert it from wind to transmission. I mentioned we are finally finishing out our galvanizing facility in Mexico. And we have opportunities based on depending on the strength of the transmission tower business. We always have opportunities to continue to invest. We are ordering additional equipment to continue to grow the business as we see demand strength accelerating. So I think you will see a combination of both organic and inorganic capital allocation in terms of M&A and organic growth going forward and hopefully continue to reduce our debt to the lower end of our range.
We'll go next now to Ian Zaffino of Oppenheimer.
Congrats on all the wind tower orders. I guess I just wanted to ask also, what is the outlook, I guess, for incremental orders there? And what was the decision to accelerate the backlog? Walk me through kind of those dynamics, was this all on because of you're trying to figure out your production schedules? Was this driven by the customers' decision? Maybe just some color around there as well.
Sure. Thank you, Ian. So let me give you a big picture. As I mentioned in my remarks, the wind industry is competitive now with other sources of power to -- but it's been attached to tax credits for a long, long time. And it seems that after '27, the industry is going to go to a market-driven economy like it probably should be, and we're happy it goes there because we are now competitive. But we have 2 years to get there. And you've seen all the policy changes during this year that have created uncertainty.
So the way to bridge these 2 years, which -- our base case scenario is that these 2 years will accelerate as we get closer to end of 2027. Historically, developers and the whole industry accelerates to try to capture as much tax credits as possible before they go away. We needed to bring that backlog to try to capture as much as possible for our customers that need these towers. And 2028 is going to be a different environment. 2028 is going to be an environment that I'm very optimistic about because the U.S. needs the power. Prices of power are going up and the industry is competitive. So we will have a very good industry in 2028 and beyond.
But for the moment, we had the backlog. We agreed with our customers to move forward part of the backlog. And at the same time, we got new orders. So I think we're in a really good position. We're not full for '26 and '27. We're still working with customers to try to accommodate additional orders and to figure out the needs of many of our customers as they go through this period of tax incentives still being present. So I'm optimistic we're going to get additional orders, but we're still early. We're just at the end of October, early November, and we have time for this to materialize over the next several months.
Okay. And then as a follow-up, I guess your 2 nongrowth segments are doing very well. And we've kind of -- you've been very patient here waiting for them to ramp and really to hit either mid-cycle or above. And kudos to you guys, you've done a very good job in doing that. Given where they are at this point and given that you want to shift your business more into growth, is there anything kind of on the horizon that you're now thinking of as far as capital allocation and moving more aggressively into growth businesses and away from those nongrowth businesses that are kind of now actually performing very well?
That's a good question, and that's a question that we are always debating. And I would tell you that Stavola changed the dynamics of Arcosa. We now have a business that's a lot larger than we were a year ago. And that has helped, let's say, put us on a better footing to be able to continue to move our portfolio. It's always -- we just have to decide when we want to continue to simplify the company. I will tell you one important step that we took this quarter was achieving our leverage ratio.
Those cyclical businesses provide a lot of cash. So we needed those businesses to be able to help us delever as we bought Stavola. Now that we are continuing to move ahead and we are reducing our leverage ratio to our target, I think we'll be in a good position to continue to move forward with the simplification of the company, but those things take time, and there's never a perfect time to do it. We'll just have to continue to evaluate it.
We go next now to Jean Van Diest (sic) [ Jean Veliz ] of D.A. Davidson.
I want to start with the wind business. Are you anticipating additional wind orders beyond what you've discussed here today? And do you need to see additional orders for us to assume a sort of stable contribution from wind in 2026?
So we have -- as I mentioned before, we're still early. We're working with our customers. I hope we can get additional orders. And I'm optimistic about where I see '26 and '27. We now have good visibility for our 3 facilities, as I mentioned in my remarks. So -- but we have time. I think we don't provide guidance at this time of the year, but we have time, and we're optimistic about where we are with our customers. So we'll know more over the next few weeks and months.
Yes. And I guess I would just add as it relates to '26 and your question. We feel very, very comfortable where we are at this point of the year, and we have good coverage of our '25 revenue run rate. We're not there at 100% yet, but we have very good coverage at this point of the year.
Got it. And moving on to Engineered Structures. Can you provide an update on timing of capacity investments you're making in Engineered Structures? And when do you expect that to begin to ramp up and contribute to growth?
I mentioned that during the second half of the year, we'll start ramping up that production. And that starts -- hopefully, by the end of the year, it should be done. And we -- I think it's going to start contributing positively probably in '27.
And are you guys filling that capacity?
Yes. Yes, we're working with our customers to fill it up. And the reason we're expanding is because we have the demand from our customers. We're really seeing accelerating demand in utility structures, and that's why we're doing this expansion and why we're evaluating additional expansion based on conversations with our customers.
And we'll go next now to Garik Shmois of Loop Capital.
Just to start, a couple of questions on barge. Just given the improvement in orders...
Garik, I'm sorry to interrupt you. We're having a hard time hearing you.
Sorry, is this better?
Yes. Please go ahead.
Okay. Sorry about that. So a couple of questions on barge to start. Just given the improvement in orders, are you seeing an inflection in hopper orders as well as tank? I'm wondering what you're hearing from your customers just regarding the ramp in the replacement cycle being sustainable moving forward? And if you can speak maybe to the type of margins you're seeing on the new orders coming into backlog.
Yes. Absolutely. The big picture is barges need to be replaced, both tank and hopper. When you look at the replacement cycle, I'm convinced over the next several years, I think we're going to have a long cycle. I'm not sure if it starts today or tomorrow or a week from now, but we believe our capacity is very, very valuable because we will need all our capacity to be able to meet this replacement cycle. And we are pricing our barges like that. So we're not giving our capacity away if we wanted to fill the plants and I gave cheap prices to every one of our customers, we will have to fill them -- we could fill them up tomorrow for the next several years.
But we're not doing that. We're selling our barges at the price we think they deserve and with good margins. And I'm a big believer in the barge business for the next several years being on strong footing. We have received orders for both hopper and tank barges. And I won't tell you it's -- people are lining up for hundreds of barges, but we see solid demand. We see solid demand for barges going forward, and we have really good visibility in our backlog. We said we're deep into the second part of the year next year. And for this time of the year, that's not common for us. No, we normally don't have that visibility that we have today for 2026.
Okay. That's helpful. I wanted to ask on aggregates and organic volumes. I think you mentioned that you're starting to see modest growth here in the fourth quarter. Wondering if you can unpack where that is. Is that certain regions are starting to perform better? Or is it more of a function of end markets improving? I'd be thinking more nonresidential and infrastructure. But just any help on where you're seeing some of the inflections on organic aggregates demand?
Yes. I will tell you. So starting by markets, I think in Texas, and over the last year, I think with residential being slow, we've strategically targeted more infrastructure business, and that takes us time to continue to move into that market from a more residential oriented, especially in Texas and in the West. So I think infrastructure continues to be solid, and that's where we're seeing good volume demand -- good volume growth.
Residential, as I mentioned in my remarks, we expected the second half to see an uptick, and we didn't see that. So we continue to inflect into more infrastructure focus. We're really excited about some of this -- the reshoring, all the power built infrastructure, all the data centers, we are seeing good volume there. And we are still seeing relatively weakness in the Gulf market. But we see very, very good potential for '26 with LNG and some other projects that have been delayed.
So I think as we move into 2026, and we've shifted more into infrastructure that will give us a solid footing and more consistent. I think on the nonresidential side, we're optimistic of what we're seeing. And then hopefully, sometime in the '26, we get some uptick in residential. So overall, very positive. Stavola specifically, a lot more focused on infrastructure. So assuming there's no impact from the federal funding, I think we should be in really good shape.
Thank you. And ladies and gentlemen, that will conclude our question-and-answer session for this morning. So that will bring us to the conclusion of today's Arcosa Third Quarter 2025 Earnings Conference Call. Again, we'd like to thank you all so much for joining us this morning and wish you all a great day. Goodbye.
Arcosa Inc — Q3 2025 Earnings Call
Financial data from Arcosa Inc
Revenue
Revenue is the sum of all sales generated by a company, e.g. for its products or services.
Revenue (TTM) metric explainedDirect Costs
Direct costs are the costs incurred directly in connection with the manufacture of the product or service.
Gross Profit
Gross Profit indicates how much of the revenue remains in the company after deducting direct production costs. If the percentage share of sales is calculated, this is referred to as the gross margin.
Gross Profit metric explainedSelling and Administrative Expenses
Selling, general and administrative expenses (SG&A) include all expenses for marketing and sales as well as the general administration of the company.
Research and Development Expense
Research and development costs (R&D) provide information on how much the company invests in the research and development of its products. The costs are particularly interesting as a percentage of revenue and in comparison to direct competitors.
EBITDA
EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization) is the company's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. The EBITDA margin is calculated as a percentage of sales.
Depreciation and Amortization
Depreciation represents reductions in the value of the company's assets (e.g. due to wear and tear on machinery).
EBIT (Operating Income)
EBIT (Earnings Before Interest and Taxes) is the company's profit before interest and taxes, also known as the operating income. The EBIT Margin is calculated as a percentage of sales at
.
Net Profit
Net Profit represents the profit or loss after deduction of all costs.
Net Profit metric explainedStocksGuide Premium
| Jun '26 |
+/-
%
|
||
| Revenue | 2,745 2,745 |
3%
3%
100%
|
|
| - Direct Costs | 2,113 2,113 |
0%
0%
77%
|
|
| Gross Profit | 632 632 |
13%
13%
23%
|
|
| - Selling and Administrative Expenses | 325 325 |
2%
2%
12%
|
|
| - Research and Development Expense | - - |
-
-
|
|
| EBITDA | 548 548 |
21%
21%
20%
|
|
| - Depreciation and Amortization | 225 225 |
4%
4%
8%
|
|
| EBIT (Operating Income) EBIT | 323 323 |
35%
35%
12%
|
|
| Net Profit | 491 491 |
433%
433%
18%
|
|
In millions USD.
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Arcosa Inc Stock News
Company Profile
Arcosa, Inc. engages in the provision of infrastructure-related products and services. It operates through the following segments: Construction Products, Energy Equipment, and Transportation Products. The Construction Products segment produces and sells construction aggregates, and manufactures and sells trench shields and shoring products and services for infrastructure-related projects. The Energy Equipment manufactures and sells products for energy-related businesses, including structural wind towers, steel utility structures for electricity transmission and distribution, and storage and distribution containers. The Transportation Products segment covers the manufacture and sale of products for the inland waterway and rail transportation industries, including barges, barge-related products, axles, and couplers. The company was founded in December 2017 and is headquartered in Dallas, TX.
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| Head office | United States |
| CEO | Mr. Carrillo |
| Employees | 6,390 |
| Founded | 2017 |
| Website | www.arcosa.com |


