US LBM’s latest financial report indicates the No. 5 ProSales 100 company saw its net profit shoot up nine-fold to $9.9 million in the third quarter from $1.1 the year before on a 13.6% rise in revenue to $831.4 million.
Those numbers are drawn from a Dec. 14 update to the registration statement US LBM first filed on May 10 to signal its intent to become a publicly traded company. The dealer gave only numbers for its nine-month performance. This story’s figures are based on subtracting previously reported numbers from the latest ones given. This article also assumes there haven’t been any major adjustments made between quarters.
Gross profit margin in the July-to-September period was 27.6%, a hair better than the second quarter’s 27.5% and below the first quarter’s 28.1%. Net profit amounted to 1.2% of sales.
As is the case with many companies going public, US LBM is a debt-laden business, with debt of $1.19 billion as of Sept 30 against total assets of $1.94 billion. But that total debt is $13.9 million less than at the end of the second quarter. At the same time, though, its interest-related expenditures in the third quarter rose 12.5% from a year earlier to reach $23.4 million.
Buffalo Grove, Ill.-based US LBM likes to measure its performance in terms of adjusted EBITDA, which it defines as earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization as well as before loss on the early extinguishment of debt, equity-based compensation expense, expenses related to its initial public offering, acquisition expenses, management fees, goodwill impairment charge, specified consultant fees and “other items.” By that metric, the company’s adjusted EBITDA rose 14.9% to $68.8 million from $59.9 million a year before.
Registration statements typcially don’t include commentary about the quarter, so comparisons with other big dealers might be useful. BMC Stock Holdings, corporate parent of the nation’s second-biggest full-service lumberyard, reported its net income doubled to $18.4 million in the third-quarter from a year-earlier $9.2 million on a 7.3% increase in net sales to $881 million. Meanwhile, third-quarter net income at Builders FirstSource shrank by nearly two-thirds from the previous year, to $39.8 million from $125.5 million, on a 7.6% rise in sales to $1.88 billion, the company reported.
