Martin Marietta Materials (NYSE:MLM) released first-quarter financial results and hosted an earnings call on Thursday. Read the complete transcript below.
This content is powered by Benzinga APIs. For comprehensive financial data and transcripts, visit https://www.benzinga.com/apis/.
The full earnings call is available at https://edge.media-server.com/mmc/p/eajqs9v6/
Summary
Martin Marietta Materials reported a strong start to 2026 with a 17% increase in revenue, reaching $1.4 billion, driven by a 7.2% growth in organic aggregate shipments.
The company reaffirmed its full-year 2026 adjusted EBITDA guidance of $2.43 billion at the midpoint, citing robust infrastructure and non-residential demand.
The Quikrete Asset Exchange was completed, providing $450 million for further aggregate acquisitions, and the acquisition of New Frontier Materials is expected to close in the second half of the year.
Operational highlights include the strongest first-quarter safety performance in the company's history and record first-quarter shipments in core aggregates and specialties business.
Management emphasized confidence in the durability of construction demand, driven by ongoing infrastructure investment and strong non-residential construction activity.
Full Transcript
OPERATOR
Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to Martin Marietta Materials' first quarter 2026 earnings conference call. All participants are currently in a listen only mode. A question and answer session will follow the Company's prepared remarks. As a reminder, today's call is being recorded and will be available for replay on the Company's website. I will now turn the call over to your host, Ms. Jacqueline Rooker, Martin Marietta Materials' Vice President of Investor Relations. Jacqueline, you may begin.
Jacqueline Rooker (Vice President of Investor Relations)
Good morning and thank you for joining Martin Marietta Materials' first quarter 2026 earnings call. With me today are Ward Nye, Chair, President and Chief Executive Officer and Michael Petro, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. As a reminder, today's discussion may include forward looking statements as defined by United States Securities Laws. These statements relate to future events, operating results or financial performance and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. Martin Marietta undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward looking statements except as legally required, whether due to new information, future developments or otherwise. For additional details, please refer to the legal disclaimers contained in today's earnings release and other public filings, which are available on both our own and the Securities and Exchange Commission's websites. Supplemental information summarizing our financial results and trends is available during this webcast and in the Investors section of our website. As a reminder, Our full year 2026 guidance summary on slide 5 reflects continuing operations only. Definitions and reconciliations of non GAAP measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measure are provided in the Appendix to the supplemental information in our SEC filings and on our website. Today's earnings call will begin with Ward Nye, who will discuss our first quarter operating performance 2026 outlook, and supporting market trends. Michael Petro will then review our financial results and capital allocation details, after which Ward will provide closing remarks. Please note that all comparisons are to the prior year's corresponding period. A question and answer session will follow. Please limit your Q&A participation to one question. I will now turn the call over to Ward.
Ward Nye (Chair, President and Chief Executive Officer)
Thank you Jacqueline Good morning and thank you for joining today's teleconference. Before reviewing our first quarter results, I'll take a moment to discuss the leadership appointment we announced earlier this week. As you may have seen, Chris Zamborski was appointed Martin Marietta Materials' chief operating officer effective May 1. Chris is a highly respected and proven leader who most recently served as President of our west and Specialties Divisions. Under his leadership, both businesses delivered meaningful growth and strong operational execution since joining Martin Marietta in 2018, Chris has consistently made a significant and positive impact in every role he's held. His deep operational experience, disciplined leadership style and strong commitment to our culture make him exceptionally well suited for this role. With Chris serving as COO, Kirk Light will assume leadership of our west and Specialties divisions while continuing in his role as President of our Southwest Division. In addition, our East Division President Oliver Brooks, Central Division President Bill Bedrazic, Vice President of Operational Excellence Ronnie Walker, and Vice President of Safety and Health Jessica Kosian will report directly to Chris. This appointment and enhanced leadership structure reflect the deep bench of talent across our divisions, districts and functions all focused on consistent execution, continuous improvement and a shared commitment to our One Culture. I'm pleased to welcome Chris to his new position and am confident that as COO he will continue to play a critical role in helping guide Martin Marietta to even greater success. With that, I'll now turn to the quarter 2026 is off to a strong start with revenues increasing an impressive 17% to $1.4 billion. A new first quarter record organic aggregate shipments growth of 7.2% meaningfully exceeded our guidance, benefiting from an early start to the construction season in the Midwest and Colorado as well as continued strength in infrastructure and heavy nonresidential demand across our geographic footprint. As we look ahead, underlying fundamentals across the business remain favorable. Notably, the quarter's Results reflect a 14% improvement in both adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations as well as adjusted earnings per diluted share from continuing operations. I'm especially pleased to report that our teams delivered the strongest first quarter safety performance in the company's history as measured by both total and lost time incident rates. This achievement reflects the strength of our culture, unwavering commitment to world class safety and the operational discipline embedded throughout the organization. The quarter was also highlighted by the February 23rd closing of the Quikrete Asset Exchange, our largest aggregates acquisition to date. Importantly, this transaction accelerated our aggregates led strategy by shifting the portfolio away from more cyclical cement and concrete assets, enhancing the quality and durability of our earnings profile while providing $450 million of cash to redeploy into aggregate acquisitions. Accordingly, and consistent with the company's SOAR 2030 strategic plan, on April 19th we entered into a definitive agreement to acquire New Frontier Materials, a complementary bolt on to our Central division that produces over 8 million tons of aggregates annually. This transaction is expected to close in the second half of the year, subject to regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions. Looking ahead. Our MA pipeline remains active and is primarily focused on pure play aggregates opportunities across attractive sewer aligned geographies. As highlighted in this morning's release. Our core aggregates product line delivered record first quarter shipments of 43.9 million tons, a 12% increase and record revenues of $1.1 billion representing a 14% increase. Our specialties business also achieved new all time quarterly records with revenues of $143 million up 63% year over year and gross profit of $45 million, an increase of 17%. Despite ongoing macroeconomic uncertainty and volatility, we continue to benefit from a business intentionally built for durability and resilience, enabling us to remain focused on what we can control regardless of underlying economic trends. With April's continued strong product demand, the impact of April 1st price increases and ongoing OPTIM efforts, we're reaffirming Our full year 2026 adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations guidance of $2.43 billion at the midpoint. Turning to end market trends, we continue to see a constructive backdrop for US Infrastructure. Our most aggregates intensive and countercyclical end market sustained federal and state investment continues to provide meaningful multi year funding visibility and as we look ahead to the next surface transportation reauthorization. Notably, a significant portion of authorized funding under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs act, or IIJA, has yet to be deployed, with nearly half of highway and bridge funding remaining undistributed as of late February. Policymakers are negotiating a five year successor surface transportation bill with committees targeting reauthorization by October 1st following the current IIJA's expiration on September 30th. While the timing remains subject to the legislative process and could include an interim continuing resolution, industry commentary from the American Road and Transportation Builders of America or ARTBA, indicates that state departments of transportation retain multi year visibility into their project pipelines and continue to plan under assumptions of stable federal funding. As a result, we do not expect a short term continuing resolution to disrupt construction activity in 2026 and for the near future. Beyond infrastructure, heavy non residential construction demand continues to be driven by robust data center and power generation activity aggregates. Intensive LNG projects along the Gulf coast is also gaining momentum, including projects such as the one at Port Arthur LNG, which Martin Marietta is actively supplying. Warehouse and distribution construction trends continue to recover as shipments inflected positively in the third quarter of 2025 and have continued to trend favorably. By contrast, affordability pressures tied to higher interest rates continue to influence the pace of light, non residential and and residential construction activity. Taken together, all these trends underscore the durability of long term construction demand across our footprint and bode well for our company and shareholders. I'll now turn the call over to Michael to discuss our first quarter financial results. Michael, over to you.
Michael Petro (Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer)
Thank you Ward and good morning everyone. As Ward noted, our core aggregates business delivered record first quarter revenues of $1.1 billion, up 14% year over year driven by organic shipment growth of more than 7% and approximately one month of acquisition contributions. Daily shipments have continued to trend above expectations in April, led by infrastructure and non residential strength in our east division, organic pricing in the first quarter was negatively impacted by geographic mix, driven primarily by robust organic shipment growth of more than 20% in our Central and West divisions which carry lower average selling prices and gross margins than our east and Southwest divisions reported aggregates Gross profit declined 3% to $288 million as stronger volumes and underlying organic pricing improvements were more than offset by geographic mix and purchase accounting impacts, including a non cash $22 million charge associated with the fair market value step up of quickrete inventory as well as higher depreciation, depletion and amortization expense which is now disclosed within our product line reporting. Importantly, underlying organic cost of goods sold per ton excluding pass through freight cost and timing related items is tracking below our implied 3% guidance as cost optimization efforts continue. Other building materials revenues declined 5% to $116 million and consistent with typical first quarter seasonality posted a $16 million gross loss driven by customary asphalt plant winter shutdowns in both Colorado and Minnesota. Our specialties business delivered revenues of $143 million and gross profit increased 17% to $45 million, both all time quarterly records reflecting contributions from the July 2025 Premier Magnesia acquisition and and organic pricing gains which were partially offset by lower organic shipments and higher energy costs. Turning to capital allocation, completion of the Quikrete asset exchange on February 23rd marked a significant milestone for the company, concluding our SOAR 2025 divestiture program providing $450 million in cash and simultaneously representing the largest aggregates acquisition in our history. With this transaction complete, We've now launched SOAR 2030 supported by a strong balance sheet and a focus on aggregates led acquisitive growth. The quikcrete integration is progressing ahead of plan with results since closing exceeding both our EBITDA and margin expectations. Further, we expect to realize synergies of approximately $50 million over the coming years as we normalize unit Profitability Importantly, the $450 million of cash proceeds combined with the company's significant free cash flow generation provides ample capacity to advance our very active M&A pipeline and opportunistically repurchase shares during times of market volatility. Consistent with this capital deployment framework, we repurchased $200 million of shares in the first quarter and announced the acquisition of New Frontier Materials, which complements our differentiated position along the I 70 corridor from Kansas City to St. Louis. Please note that our reaffirmed 2026 guidance does not include contributions from New Frontier as the transaction has not yet closed. Consistent with historical practice, we will revisit guidance at midyear. With that, I will now turn the
Ward Nye (Chair, President and Chief Executive Officer)
call back over to Ward. Thank you, Michael the first quarter of 2026 marked the launch of SOAR 2030, an important milestone in the continued evolution of our company's portfolio. Our increasingly aggregates led foundation was strengthened by the closing of the Quikrete Asset Exchange and further reinforced by additional bolt on aggregates acquisition activity already announced this year. Combined with our high performing differentiated specialties business, these actions have created a resilient and durable enterprise. This streamlined and focused portfolio supported by attractive long term demand drivers, advantaged market positions and and culture deeply rooted in safety, commercial and operational excellence, reinforces our confidence in SOAR 2030, and our ability to deliver sustainable growth and enduring value creation for our shareholders. If the operator now provides the required instructions, we'll turn our attention to addressing your questions
OPERATOR
and thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. If you have dialed in and would like to ask a question, please press Star one on your telephone keypad to raise your hand and join the queue. If you would like to withdraw your question, simply press Star one a second time. If you're called upon to ask your question and are listening via speakerphone on your device, please pick up your handset and ensure that your phone is not on mute when asking your question. Again, it is Star one to join the queue and our first question comes from the line of Trey Grooms with Stevens. Your line is open.
Ward Nye (Chair, President and Chief Executive Officer)
Hey, good morning Ward and Michael. Thanks for taking my question. So, given the more challenging near term cost environment, particularly around diesel and potentially softer residential demand backdrop, Ward, could you walk us through some of the key assumptions that are supporting your decision to reiterate the full year EBITDA guidance? Specifically, maybe how you're thinking about the cadence of pricing through the year, including any catch up to the higher diesel costs and you know what level maybe of incremental or Mid year increases is embedded in that outlook. Thank you. That's right. Thanks for the question. Good to hear your voice. So several things. One, as you noted, we are reaffirming our guidance for the year relative to EBITDA. We feel very confident in that. As you know, this actually excludes anything from New Frontier because that hasn't closed yet. Secondly, we tend to come back at midyear and reassess our guidance. I'll tell you right now I'm feeling pretty optimistic about what that reassessment is going to look like. So I'm looking forward to that at mid year. I would say several things. One, if we just think about some of the reasons why, if we're looking at our shipment trends, as you may recall, when we announced our guide in February for the year, we said if there was any place that we thought we were being a little bit probably conservative on, it may be on the shipment outlook. You can see how that came through in Q1. You can also tell from the prepared remarks today and the headlines to the, to the release that April has come out of the box very attractively as well. So my guess is we're going to see shipments probably trending to the higher end of the guide relative to pricing. I'm not looking at pricing and having any concern about how I think that's going to roll out for the year. We did call out in the prepared remarks, I know Michael did that what we saw in the Central and West groups in particular was volumes up 21%. I mean that's a big number. And keep in mind, pricing there is notably lower, and by that I mean dollars per ton lower than it is in the East and the Southwest. And so what we've seen so far in April is we're seeing that mix flow back to the type of cadence that we would ordinarily expect. So we're seeing the east really catch up nicely with that. Keep in mind too, I anticipate we're going to see a greater realization of mid year price increases this year than we saw last year. Clearly the diesel impact and others will be a driver on that. That is not taken into account in our guide. So again, it's something that gives me a lot of confidence in what we're doing. I know part of your question dealt very specifically with diesel and how we see that. So if you think about the fact that we're going to consume, let's call it 55 ish million gallons of diesel fuel this year, that's assuming that diesel prices peak probably in Q2 and then return not to lower levels, but probably somewhat more moderated levels in Q3 and Q4. We feel like the overall impact from diesel headwinds, and that's including other items impacted by it, will be about $36 million in the aggregates business, probably $50 million for the entire company. So it's not going to be anything that's material. The other thing that I would remind you is if we go back in time and remember what diesel pricing looked like back when Ukraine and Russia first started their conflict, diesel spiked. And then we saw that headwind for a while, and then we actually saw a nice margin expansion actually later that year. This is not as pronounced as that was at the time. So I feel like it's very manageable. And again, to your point, with what's going on in infrastructure and what's going on with heavy non-residential activity, I think the volume backdrop will continue to be very attractive. But Trey, I hope that helps.
Trey Grooms
That did. That was super helpful, Ward. And specifically on that 36 million you're talking about for 2Q, I'm guessing it'd be more weighted there.
Ward Nye (Chair, President and Chief Executive Officer)
Any color, just for our modeling, it is weighted more there. I'll turn it over to Michael to talk to you a little bit more about any modeling questions you may have.
Michael Petro (Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer)
Yeah, Trey, you're absolutely right. So we're thinking about 20 to 25 million of it coming through in Q2, given where spot rates are. But just in terms of the organic cost cadence as compared to last year. Remember in Q1 of last year, we had sub 2.5% cost of goods sold (COGS) per ton growth. And then we had 6ish percent in Q2 and Q3 and 4 in Q4. So we've now passed the tough cost comp growth. And so we feel very good about the implied cost per ton through the balance of the year, assuming we do get a little bit of diesel headwind embedded in there as well.
Trey Grooms
Got it. All right, thanks for the color. I'll pass it on.
OPERATOR
And our next question comes from the line of Catherine Thomson with Thomson Research Group. Your line is open.
Catherine Thomson
Hi. Thank you for taking my question today and appreciated your color and prepared commentary on the reauthorization of IIJA. So we have been speaking to a wide variety of contacts on this bill reauthorization. And the general theme is no bill is going backwards on funding the House is what we're hearing is $$550 billion. Sounds like it fits pretty close to what you're also saying. But I think the important thing, too, just to clarify is how much of this is going to be true surface transportation versus the $350 billion from the prior bill that was for surface transportation. And if you could further suss out how much is that of surface is true highways and bridges versus other things that could potentially fall into that category. Thanks very much, Nathan.
Ward Nye (Chair, President and Chief Executive Officer)
You're welcome. Thank you for the question. So I would say several things. We're totally aligned with what you're hearing, and that is nothing in this is going backward. I think it's really important to note that as we're looking at what's likely to come out of the House and the Senate, neither committees of jurisdiction are planning to include broader infrastructure components like energy broadband programs or others that made up more than half of the 2021 infrastructure law. So I think to your point, this is going to be a highways, bridges, roads and streets core infrastructure bill, and we don't see anything that's changing that overall notion as we're looking at it right now. From my understanding, the House is targeting may to mark up the legislative text, so we'll certainly know more then. But I think the numbers that you've indicated are certainly what I've heard from Chairman Graves and others who are on that committee. And I also think we're likely to see numbers notably ahead of that coming out of the Senate. So as this goes to a conference, I think we're going to see a nicely a nice, solid, robust core surface transportation bill that's going to come out. I think they're still aiming to have this done in time so they don't have to have a cr. I do think if they have to have a cr, it's likely going to be one. I think it's likely to be relatively short. And of course, Katherine, as you know, if they do end up with a crisis, what that means is the federal highway funds will continue to flow to the states in an uninterrupted fashion and will remain at the current levels that are actually very high and attractive. The other thing that I think goes unheralded, but I think it's important to remember is if we look at Martin Marietta state DOT budgets, those budgets not in every instance, but in the vast majority of instances are up year over year, which tells us that they're anticipating not seeing any interruptions from the federal side as well. So I tried to address what does timing look like. I've tried to address what does it look like coming out of the House, because I think that's going to lead I've tried to address what we see coming out of the Senate and I've tried to address a CR that if we have one, frankly, we're not the least bit concerned about. So, Kathryn, again, I hope that helps.
Catherine Thomson
It does. Thank you.
Ward Nye (Chair, President and Chief Executive Officer)
Thank you, Katherine.
OPERATOR
And our next question comes from the line of Adam Tolheimer with Thompson Davis. Your line is open.
Adam Tolheimer
Hey, good morning, guys. Nice quarter. Adam, three part question on M and A. Can you give us any early thoughts? I know it's only been a couple months on Quikrete, on New Frontier. Are there any kind of unique synergy opportunities there? And then lastly on the M and A pipeline and outlook for deals from here.
Ward Nye (Chair, President and Chief Executive Officer)
Yeah, you're hitting us with a hat trick coming out of the box, Adam. I'd say several things. Qwikrete has frankly exceeded expectations. The integration has gone really well. The business is performing better than we expected. I mean, we saw $17 million of EBITDA, which on an annualized basis is going to be well ahead of anything that we saw. The fact is we worked through and are continuing to work through very sensibly, the markup in the inventory. I mean, that's the tyranny of purchase price accounting that we always have to manage. When we came out with that transaction, as you recall, we said we thought we'd have around $50 million of synergies. I don't think we see anything in that number that causes us any degree of heartache whatsoever. And hopefully we can see more on that relative to New Frontier. We're really excited about that transaction. So if you think about what that's doing in the purchase of Quikrete, we bought very attractive assets in Virginia, attractive assets in Missouri and Kansas, and attractive assets in British Columbia. And what New Frontier is doing is it's adding more assets in what for us is a very attractive market position in Missouri right now. And we're excited about the transaction not just because of where it is, but the really high quality team that's coming with that as well. So we're excited to welcome them to Martin Marietta, hopefully sooner rather than later. It's an interesting transaction because as we noted in the prepared remarks, this is about 8.5 million tons of annualized of aggregates and about 1.5 million tons annualized of asphalt. But keep in mind, this business is a lot like the tiller business that we bought years ago, meaning it's an free on board (FOB) asphalt business. So we're not involved in lay down there. It's truly a materials business. And again, we think this is going to be nicely accretive to what we're doing in the middle part of the country. That, as Michael called out in his commentary, is really a differentiator for us relative to the pipeline. It's looking pretty attractive. Look, as we discussed at last year's Capital Markets Day, we've identified at least 300 million tons a year of businesses that are in SOAR related markets that we think are compelling to us. As I indicated in my commentary as well, we continue to be focused largely on pure aggregate transactions and I think New Frontier is a great example of that. I mean, 8.5 million tons is not a trifling acquisition and we continue to see that opportunity for more and we look forward to doing that very successfully this year and into next year and beyond. So Adam, I hope that hit the three parts perfect.
Adam Tolheimer
Thank you, Ward.
Ward Nye (Chair, President and Chief Executive Officer)
You're very welcome.
OPERATOR
And our next question comes from the line of Anthony Pettinari with Citi. Your line is open.
Anthony Pettinari
Good morning. Hi Anthony. Hey. You know, if I look at the contract awards data that we can see, you've seen, you know, very strong contract awards growth in your states really for a number of years and I think, you know, last 12 month number looks good, but I think for some of the states, you know, maybe we've seen a deceleration and some softer awards. Just looking at the last three to six months. If I look at the ARPDA data and you know, understanding these awards are like very chunky, especially in the beginning of the year and you've got a big lag between awards and revenue recognition. I'm just wondering if there's any states where you've been surprised on the contract awards data either positively or negatively or just kind of like how we should think about that flowing through as the year progresses.
Ward Nye (Chair, President and Chief Executive Officer)
Anthony, thanks for the question. I would say several things. One, if we look at the ARTBA data, there's nothing that's been in that that's been surprising to me. I think the other thing that's worth noting is ARTBA will typically say that value contract awards can be particularly volatile in the first quarter. And that's really as state and local governments typically simply bid less work in the early parts of the year. I think importantly, as I try to give you a guide on how to think about it going forward. As your question indicated, I look at the spending authority and I think that's really important to look at relative to our leading states. So if I'm looking at Texas, which matters disproportionately to us, that's up almost 15%. If I'm looking at Colorado, which is one of our leading states in the west, that's up nearly 7%. If I'm looking at Georgia, which is a critically important state to us, we're the largest aggregates producer in Georgia, that's up almost 7.5%. And then in California, it's been interesting to watch that they're up almost 6.5%. So again, as we're looking at what's coming out of the federal government, as we're thinking about timing and choppiness, that's not unusual, particularly in Q1. And as we're looking at that level of spending authority in our top DOT states on the public side, it actually gives me a great deal of confidence. The other thing that helps in that respect is simply looking at what's happened so far this year. Now, keep in mind, if we're looking at Q1, about 18% of our volume for the full year is going to go in Q1. So I mean, it's not necessarily driver of anything that's going to happen for the rest of the year, which is why we never, for example, update our guidance at the end of Q1. You have much better feel for it when you get to half year. But I do think this is notable. If I'm looking at tonnage that went to highways and streets in Q1 versus the prior year quarter, they're up 23%. So I mean, I think that gives us a good sense of where it's heading right now and takes me back to some of the commentary that I gave early on. If we're being conservative anywhere, it's probably on the volume outlook. And I think as we look at the volume outlook, we're very bullish on the way public is going to pull through. So Anthony, again, I hope that helps you as well.
Anthony Pettinari
No, that's extremely helpful. I'll turn it over.
Ward Nye (Chair, President and Chief Executive Officer)
Thanks, Anthony. Take care.
OPERATOR
And our next question comes from Tyler Brown with Raymond James. Your line is open.
Ward Nye (Chair, President and Chief Executive Officer)
Hey, good morning, Tyler. How are you?
Tyler Brown
I'm good. Hey, first off, congratulations to everybody on their new roles. Sounds like some movement there, so that's great. But hey, big picture, there are a lot of moving pieces in the numbers this morning. I think pricing was maybe flat on a reported basis. Gross profit per ton was down. You had Quikrete Geo Mix purchase accounting. I mean, all of that's having big impact. So, Michael, is there just any way that we could cut through the clutter, just get some color, you know, kind of how ASP and gross profit are looking like on more of a like to like basis. Is that mid single digit pricing, high single digit unit profitability algorithm still very much intact. I've just been getting some questions this morning. Just some color there would be helpful.
Michael Petro (Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer)
Yeah, no, sure, sure Tyler. What I would say is on an organic basis, you know, our guide for the full year would still remain firmly intact which would see you know, aggregates gross profit up, call it double digits for the year. Now how that plays out through the balance of the year, as Ward mentioned, there's probably going to be more volume. So volume trending to the high end. In fact, I mean as we sit here closing April, we're at the high end of a full year guide with how much volume we've already banked and with the pricing, it's just difficult to make up in a calendar year. The pricing that we saw in Q1 given the Geo mix over the balance of the next three quarters. So what we said is look, we're seeing that broaden out with the east division, higher ASP leading the way in April. So we're starting to see that Geo mix shift on ASP, which also flows through to the margin because it's not only higher asp, it's lower cost to produce in the east as well. So we're going to see that come through here in Q2 and into the balance of the year. But, but making that up might be difficult. So we're saying, hey look, organic pricing might be towards the 4% absent any mid years, but you know we're going to be out and in fact we're already out with mid years pretty much across the entire country. Where we expect to see a lot of that is also in the east and where we completed acquisitions this year. So there's nothing in the organic guide that gives us any pause. In fact we feel pretty confident in that. And then getting to the full year EBITDA guide, as Ward mentioned, Quikrete has actually come out of the gate much better than expected in just one month with 17 million of EBITDA, 42% EBITDA margin,. So nicely accretive and their volume is actually exceeding expectations, but at a little bit lower reported ASP. But remember we always said it was ASP dilutive but margin accretive. So what do we mean by that? These are relatively low cost of production operations. So we're going to start to see that flow through once we eat through the inventory markup, which as Ward mentioned, there's about 44 million of that left to chew through in Q2, but of course that's an add back to EBITDA. But it's going to be a hit to add gross profit in Q2 just, just for modeling purposes. But does that answer your question, Tyler, or any more color you need?
Tyler Brown
Yeah, just. No, just that the, the algorithm that you guys laid out at Capital Markets Day is, is firmly intact. That's kind of the takeaway.
Michael Petro (Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer)
Yeah. On a price cost spread basis. Absolutely. Yeah. And think about that really over a five year period, not in a quarter or a year. So what we said is there's a long history in this industry and Martin Marietta Materials specifically of delivering 200 basis points, of spread over a five year interval. And what we're saying is this year given or this five year period, you know, we expect to expand that by about 50 basis points. So look at that over a five year period and not in any particular quarter.
Ward Nye (Chair, President and Chief Executive Officer)
And Tanner, let me add one more thing too. And I think this is important because you nailed it and that is there are a lot of moving parts. Right. So cutting through and trying to get to really clear numbers is important. And the cost performance is something that I want to make sure you have a clear look at too. Because I'm looking at that through two different lenses. Number one, what does it look like organically? Number two, what does it look like on a consolidated basis? And here's what I would tell you. If we're looking at organic ag's cost of goods,, I would say several things. One, take out the external freight because that's simply a pass through. We had some odd one offs on rail maintenance and track repair expenses if we're really looking at it. Same on same COGS per ton went up about 2.7% organically if we're looking at it on a consolidated basis. And again, taking out the fair market inventory markup, the external freight and just the acquired DDA COGS were up around 1.7%. So I think to Michael's point, that cost price spread that we anticipate seeing is fully intact. And part of what I'm taken by, as you may recall, we actually took our capex guide down very purposefully coming into the year because we felt like we had invested in the business really responsibly the last several years. And that really came through in what we're seeing in lower repairs and supply expenses as well. So I wanted to come back and give you even more color relative to. Okay, these are the things that we talked about at Capital Markets Day. These are the things Things that you built into a model over time. And are they firmly intact? I don't think there's any question as we drill down and look at these, that they are.
Tyler Brown
Yeah. Nope. Very, very helpful and very much appreciate the DNA disclosure. Thank you.
Ward Nye (Chair, President and Chief Executive Officer)
Thank you, Tyler.
OPERATOR
And our next question comes from the line of Phil Ing with Jefferies. Your line is open.
Jesse
Hey, guys, good morning. It's Jesse on for Phil, just on QuickRead. Was there any disruption in them announcing pricing to start the year just with the pending transaction? And I know it kind of closed a little bit later than maybe you expected. Are you still able to announce kind of mid years in some of those territories that you just acquired? Thank you for the question.
Ward Nye (Chair, President and Chief Executive Officer)
And the short answer is we are expecting mid years in those markets. We have already put our correspondence to our customers indicating as much. And obviously, as we've indicated before, the average selling prices (ASP)s overall that Quikrete had in their business were not at the same level that Martin Marietta typically is. So our aim is to try to get that closer to something that looks normal across our enterprise. So, yes, that is very specifically one of the areas in which we anticipate mid year price increases.
Jesse
Okay, great. And then just one quick follow up. You've had specialties in the premier business for a couple quarters now. Anything that's kind of sticking out to you, either incremental opportunities or anything that you're kind of more convicted in having owned it for a couple quarters.
Ward Nye (Chair, President and Chief Executive Officer)
You know what? I would say that our conviction remains the same. It was a very attractive business. Now we have the synthetic and natural magnesia. It's a business that continues to have earned the right to grow. They're executing against their plan very, very well. It's not necessarily a seasonal business. So again, I think that's important to have within a seasonal business because it gives you such good stability all the way through portions of the year. So everything we look at in that we like their safety culture is becoming more aligned with ours. Their margins still have room for improvement, and the core business is running very well. So nothing, nothing there to be concerned about from my perspective.
Jesse
Appreciate the color. Thanks.
OPERATOR
And our next question comes from the line of Angel Castillo with Morgan Stanley. Your line is open. Hi.
Angel Castillo
Thanks for taking my question. And good morning. I just wanted to go back to the midyears. Good morning. Just wanted to go back to the midyears conversation. I was hoping you could talk a little bit about what you're seeing perhaps in the asphalt markets versus Ready Mix. I think Ready Mix has seen some push out to April, I guess. Are you able to try to get mid years in the ready mix side as well or those. How do you kind of address the energy or inflation that you're seeing across those markets?
Ward Nye (Chair, President and Chief Executive Officer)
So I would say several things as we think about hot mix for itself, several things that are worth noting. Number one, we can actually store a lot of liquid, So if we're looking at our fiscal position today, particularly in Minnesota, because part of what we bought when we bought Tiller was a very significant tank farm, we used winter fill to go through that. I think from an energy perspective and otherwise we're going to be in a very good position in our asphalt business. Equally, if we think about the asphalt business, it's not a huge portion of it that's in California, but California also has indexing that's basically there. So as it flows through, we're going to be in fine shape on that. And again, to keep in mind from EBITDA or other perspective, these downstream businesses are not going to add huge amounts of EBITDA to it. It's really in some respects more to take the stone and push it through those markets. So I think we're going to be in a perfectly good spot there. I think relative to concrete. Again, if you're looking at where we have concrete now, it's really a pretty concise marketplace. It's really in Arizona. You know, we're talking about a concrete business now that on an annualized basis is going to have, let's call it about 1.2 million cubic yards. So if you go back several years and remember, look, this used to be about a 10 million cubic yard business and now it's down to about 1.2 million cubic yards. Arizona is an attractive ready mix market for us. We are seeing some price increases there. So we would anticipate that business performing very much in line with the way that we indicated. And again, given what we can do on asphalt and liquid storage, we don't feel like the energy component is going to be a threat to that business on the hot bank side either.
Angel Castillo
Very helpful. And then Ward, I wanted to follow up on your comments that April's off to a very good start and pushing your shipment volumes perhaps to the higher end, I guess. Can you talk a little bit more particularly on the, I guess on the private side, I think you've given a lot. On the public side that's really helpful. But just as it pertains to what you're seeing here in April and what you saw in 1Q sounds like weather allowed a little bit maybe of activity to start earlier on, but are you seeing projects that maybe weren't in the backlog move forward faster, just greater confidence, or how do we kind of reconcile the strength in some of that volume and what you might be seeing on the private side, just with some of the rising costs, rising interest rates and other factors that we're hearing?
Ward Nye (Chair, President and Chief Executive Officer)
Sure. I'll pivot nicely to the private side of it and say several things. One, if we're looking in the quarter on what we saw relative to warehousing, warehousing was up 57%. If we're looking at what we saw relative to data centers, data centers were up 62%. If we're looking at what we're seeing in degrees of different forms of energy, for example, LNG for us during the quarter was up 20%. If we go and take a look at what's going on in shale, I mean, shale was up on a percentage basis, a ridiculous percentage amount, simply because it's coming from such a low base. But part of what I think is important to remind people, probably back in 2010 or 11, we were sending about 7.5 million tons of stone per annum to the different shale plays across the United States. So think about what that means. That's about a million tons less than the New Frontier business that we just bought. So again, as I'm looking at what's happening with warehousing, as I look at what's happening with data centers, as I look at what's going on relative to energy, those are the types of things that, as we look, as you said, at the private side, that gives us that degree of confidence. But what I'm taking by on the warehousing in particular, this isn't just an Amazon show anymore. It's much broader than that. We're seeing it with Walmart, we're seeing Ross distribution centers, Delhais is building a nice distribution center in North Carolina right now. But to be even more specific, if we go through and look at the LNG project pipeline today, on projects that are currently supplied by Martin Marietta, they're going to consume about 10.6 million tons. If we look at projects that we believe are potentially coming our way relative to LNG and otherwise, I mean, that's another 33 million tons. And I'm sorry, that first number I gave you on projects was in fact LNG, and that was on projects that 10.6 million data centers are right at 3.27 million tons that are estimated and well over 2 million just for this year. So again, if we're looking at the heavy side of non res, there's nothing there that doesn't look pretty attractive to us. Now to your point on residential and light non res you get the same story that we do and that is those are highly interest rate affected areas. They are not booming in any respect right now. So what I'm really taken by is we're putting up double digit volume growth and we've got those interest rate sensitive portions of our business that are frankly not doing anything right now. But here's what we know. If we're looking at the overall housing market in the United States generally, and Martin Marietta states specifically, everything that I've seen indicates that it's going to require about 4 million additional homes simply to restore balance. So as I'm looking at these areas that are more interest rate sensitive, to me it's not a matter of whether they return. They're going to return, it's a matter of when they return. And then if we come back to this notion, do I think infrastructure is in a place that it's going to be steady for a while? And by that I don't mean quarters or months, but years. I think it is. If we look at the rate of growth in energy data centers, warehousing, et cetera, that too to me looks like it's probably a multi year run. And I think somewhere in there you're going to see private decide they're going to stop being spectators and get in the game. So Angela, I hope that gives you some specifics around the areas in which you asked.
Angel Castillo
Very helpful. Thanks so much Ford.
Ward Nye (Chair, President and Chief Executive Officer)
Thank you.
OPERATOR
And our next question comes from the line of Stephen Fisher with ubs. Your line is open.
Stephen Fisher
Thanks. Good morning. Just wanted to follow up again on the mid year price increases. It sounds like you're pretty confident in them. Can you just remind us how much of that is sort of an automatic. I think you mentioned California has indexing. So how much of that from a process perspective just flows through versus negotiated? And have you gotten any preliminary feedback from customers on this? Are people just sort of resolved that this is going to happen because of all the inflationary pressures on fuel and everything? So that's one question and then just a clarification on what you assume for the residential markets for your residential business in the second half of the year. Thank you.
Ward Nye (Chair, President and Chief Executive Officer)
So Steven, I would thank you for the question. I would say several things, Stephen. One, let's make sure we're keeping buckets really clear. So when we're talking about the indexing and things that that's really more relative to liquid and what's going on in ASPhalt in places like California. So I don't really put that in the same bucket that I do mid year pricing in stone. So what I would say is this. We saw mid year pricing last year in aggregates. We saw it principally in areas where we had done new acquisitions. I think we will certainly see that again, but I think it's going to be more broad based than that because of the inflationary trends that you've highlighted. So if you want to say, look, we're not going to bat a thousand on it, but if you say we batted 300 last year, that would have put you in the hall of Fame. Look, we're going to not be at 300 and we're not going to be at 1000, but we'll be somewhere between those two. And I think it's going to be a really attractive percentage for all the reasons that you said. I think customers are seeing inflation in what they're trying to manage from their cost perspective. We are as well. And this is just something that if we're going to be responsible stewards of our business, we need to do this. So I wanted to break out and differentiate what you spoke of specifically in California with really what we're talking about on mid-year increases and give you a sense of what realization I think we're likely to see in that respect. Stephen, I hope that helped. Yeah, that was very helpful.
Stephen Fisher
And if you had a comment on the RESI business expectation for the second half, that would be great as well.
Ward Nye (Chair, President and Chief Executive Officer)
Yeah, you know, we came into the year with very low expectations of Resi. And I don't think it's going to disappoint us. I think it's going to continue to. There's just not going to be anything that's going to be, at least in my view, a real pop on that. And that's exactly why we came into the year with it forecasted the way that we did. So RESI is moving exactly as we thought it would. And that's why I'm taken with the rest of it. You're seeing a nice volume pop with Resi not yet at the party. At the same time, we go back to that notion that I shared before. Martin Marietta has built its business very purposefully in states that have significant population inflows coming in. And the housing markets in Most of our MSAs is pretty tight. So I think it's a matter of time but it's not going to be this year.
Stephen Fisher
Thank you so much.
Ward Nye (Chair, President and Chief Executive Officer)
Thank you.
OPERATOR
And our next question comes from the line of Rohit Seth with B. Riley Securities. Your line is open.
Rohit Seth
Hey, thanks for taking my question. You started talking about the network optimization a couple of quarters ago. Just want to get an update on how things are trending in the first quarter.
Ward Nye (Chair, President and Chief Executive Officer)
Thanks for the question. It continues to go quite well. And as you recall, we said at the time we'd probably come back at half year and give you a good sense of how that's working. But again, if we go back to the notion and the numbers that I went through a little while ago, really looking at organic costs up 2.7%, looking at consolidated costs the way that we look at them, up 1.7%, really looking at repairs, supplies, I mean, if anything, frankly, those are frankly in the green for the quarter. So we continue to feel like the program itself is working. It still has some maturity to go through and we look forward to having a more robust conversation with you about that at half year.
Rohit Seth
All right, thank you. And just to clarify on the guidance in terms of the upside levers that you guys have, it's the mid year pricing that's not in the guidance. The network optimization that you're going to address at mid year's also not in the guidance. And then the NFM acquisition as well, correct?
Ward Nye (Chair, President and Chief Executive Officer)
That's exactly right. So those are all, I'm going to say more than potential upsides to the guide. Those will all be, I think, meaningful upsides to the guide.
Rohit Seth
All right. Thank you.
Ward Nye (Chair, President and Chief Executive Officer)
Thank you.
OPERATOR
And our next question comes from the line of Garrick Schmoy with Loop Capital Markets. Your line is open.
Zach Pacheco
Good morning. This is actually Zach Pacheco on for Garrick today. Thanks for taking my question. Just a quick one on the bidding environment. Just curious, given oil inflation pressure, are you seeing any rebidding right now or is that not really something popping up? Thanks.
Ward Nye (Chair, President and Chief Executive Officer)
Yeah, it's a good question. And the short answer is no, we really haven't seen that. It's been pretty steady, pretty consistent, no real surprises there. If we see anything that's different than that, we'll obviously talk about it at half year. But as we're sitting here toward the end of April, it has largely been a non event. But it's a good question.
Zach Pacheco
Thank you.
OPERATOR
And our next question comes from the line of Mike Dudas with Vertical Research. Your line is open.
Mike Dudas
Good morning, Jacqueline, Michael Wartime. Maybe one from Michael. Looking at the balance sheet and where we ended the quarter and on a pro forma basis given the acquisition and any working capital or cash flow changes, will net levels that be fairly similar. How should we think about that when we see the close of the transaction and on the acquisition and the capacity you have for further acquisitions? Ward, is the pipeline weighted and your thoughts weighted towards adding to some of your existing levels, Maybe some of the levels that you just recently purchased or companies purchased last couple of years? Or is Martin ready to step out some other areas to put soar into place outside of its current regions? Thank you. You know what, let me take part
Ward Nye (Chair, President and Chief Executive Officer)
two of that and Michael will come back and take part one of that. So here's, here's part of the glorious position we find ourselves in today with the coast to coast business. Now that we have, particularly after the transaction with Heidelberg that put us in California and Arizona that's put us number one coast to coast number two, with a footprint now in every mega region and now with things like the transaction that we did with Quikrete, for example, an even more significant footprint in the northwestern United States as well. So I think what's going to happen as a practical matter is transactions that we will do will all tend to have something of a bolt on feel to it relative to the concept of how close is it to an overall Martin Marietta business. And I like that because the most dangerous transactions you do is when you go into a brand new area of the country. You don't have a team there, you don't have a history. There's a. And you're having to go in and kind of reinvent yourselves. I don't think we're in positions that we need to do that anymore. Now does that mean that transactions financially on occasion won't look like a platform transaction? No, it doesn't mean that at all. So what I'm taken by, and I continue to be taken by, is the size and the scope of some of the potential transactions that we're looking at or that we may be looking at. So we may come to you at some point this year, next year or others with transactions financially that you would say that looks and feels like a platform transaction. But when you look at it geographically, you're going to say, but it's going to act like a bolt on transaction. I think that might be the best of both worlds. Now with that as an aim, Michael can come back and talk to you about where we sit financially. Yeah. From a balance sheet standpoint, these transactions, New Frontier pro forma, specifically to your
Michael Petro (Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer)
question, would not really move the needle on our leverage ratio because remember, we had the cash proceeds coming in from the quikrete transaction, number one. And number two, we just sit here at the end of SOAR 2025 generating over a billion dollars of free cash, flow after dividends that we've said we'd put back to work primarily in aggregate slide M&A. And so the pipeline that we're talking about here, we think that fits right within that free cash, flow generation, redeployment.
Mike Dudas
Excellent, gentlemen. Thank you.
Ward Nye (Chair, President and Chief Executive Officer)
Thank you.
OPERATOR
And our next question comes from the line of David McGregor with Longbow Research. Your line is open.
David McGregor
Yes, good morning everyone and thanks for taking my questions. Ward, you were asked earlier about bidding. I guess I wanted to come back to that kind of, kind of bigger topic. Just get your sense of how you're seeing state dots responding to project cost inflation. Are you seeing them skew their resources to larger or smaller projects? Maybe how much push forward to 27. Are you seeing any cancellations as they focus limited resources on their top priority projects and maybe how quickly they're revising engineers estimates?
Ward Nye (Chair, President and Chief Executive Officer)
So great questions all there. No, we're not seeing anything pushed out, David, number one. Number two, we continue to see them trend toward larger as opposed to smaller projects, which I think underscores the view that I think, going back to the IIJA conversation that we had, I don't think states tend to see any break in the funding and the way that they're going about this because I think they feel like it's going to get done timely. If it doesn't be one cr, then we're into a new cycle. You know, when I went through those numbers that I gave you before, just simply talking about what it looked like in Q1 when we said streets and highways were up 23%. If we think about the fact that we're sitting here today and still half of that money is still yet to be deployed. I think state dots want to get that in play and they want to get it in place sooner rather than later. I think equally when we come back and look at our state dots more specifically and think about what's Texas thinking, what's North Carolina thinking, what's Georgia, Georgia thinking, what's Florida thinking? These are states that need to add capacity and I think they're very focused on capacity, which again takes us to what I think will continue to be an increasingly aggregates intensive type of work. The states that are not seeing the same degree of population inflows that we're seeing tend to default to more Maintenance and repair. And that's simply not as aggregate intensive as either building new roads or building, building new lanes. And I continue to think that's where our dots are largely to be focused right now. David, did I answer all your questions or is there another component I did not answer?
David McGregor
No, that was pretty good, Ward. Maybe just I wanted to get your temperature on mid year pricing as well and any features of how you're pursuing increases this year that could make them more impactful to second half realizations than they would normally be. Yeah, just a compounding benefit into the new year.
Ward Nye (Chair, President and Chief Executive Officer)
Well, I think we'll clearly see the compounding benefit into the new year. I mean that's always there. I think the question that you're asking is a good one and that is how much of it are you going to realize during the course of a year? History tells us typically we'd realize about 25% of it during the course of the year in which it was put in. Then you'd have the compounding benefit going into the next year. If we continue to see this rate and pace of work on non res and res, I think you could see a higher realization than that historic 25%. I'm not willing to get in over my skis on that at this point, so I would ask you not to model that in. But at least that's what it looks like historically. But again, if you go back to those numbers that we're seeing on the up on infra, the up on warehousing, the up on data, the up on energy, I don't see that abating here over the next few months. So David, that's what makes me at least think there's a likelihood that you might see greater realization.
David McGregor
Got it. Thanks for all that, Ward. Appreciate it.
Ward Nye (Chair, President and Chief Executive Officer)
Take care, David.
OPERATOR
And our final question comes from the line of Ivan Yee with Wolff Research. Your line is open.
Ivan Yee
Hey, good morning. Thanks for squeezing me in here. Last week CSX on their earnings call highlighted a large expansion of a Martin Marietta Materials loading facility in Florida. Can you just comment on this a little more? How much are volumes increasing through this facility and is this supporting data centers growth in particular? And lastly, what are the cost advantages you're experiencing from shipping more rail versus truck. Thank you.
Ward Nye (Chair, President and Chief Executive Officer)
You know what, I'll take the front end of that. Michael will take some of that as well. So we'll split this up a little bit.
Michael Petro (Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer)
So if you go back and think about it, Ivan, we send more stone by rail than any other stone producer in the country. So we're going to ship about 30 million tons per annum by rail. Obviously we'd like to do more of that because you have to have two things to make that work. A rail producing quarry and a rail yard in the market that needs the product. What we're primarily doing in Florida is historically it's been by rail an infrastructure play for us because what we're doing is we're the largest importer of granite into that marketplace. So we're coming in by granite by rail, which means we're coming in by csx. So you mentioned we're coming in by Norfolk Southern and we're also coming in by Panamax vessels out of Nova Scotia. So those are our vehicles literally to bring granite into a granite starved state. So again, if we look@florida. And the way it's going to continue to grow, asphalt producers in that state will prefer a granite product because it's not as absorptive of liquid asphalt. So if we go back to the notion that liquid has moved pretty considerably in price, you're over $500 a ton usually on average. If you can put an asphalt mix down and back off on the liquid, that's actually very helpful. The other thing is granite tends not to polish the same way that limestone does. So if you're looking at a top coat on asphalt, it's better. Now relative to other data center and related activity in Florida, number one, we have grown our overall presence in that market with what you've seen with Bluewater and what you've seen with Yonquist Brothers as well. So we have the ability to hit more of that market by truck than we ever have before. We're amping up our ability to continue to hit that market by rail. Michael, anything you want to add to any of that? Yeah, I would just say given our rail network, not specifically in Florida, but more so in Texas and East Texas in particular, one thing that we started seeing in Q1 and Ward mentioned it is the Haynesville Shale, coming back online. So that's the direct pipeline down to the LNG export facilities. So we have rail terminals in East Texas and West Louisiana that we can reach that others simply can't. So we saw an acceleration there there. Then we also have now west Texas terminals where we can get down to Abilene in and around Stargate and we can get out to Amarillo, Texas all the way from Mill Creek, Oklahoma to serve a large data center project there. So what you'll start seeing is those projects start to come online over the balance of the year. You will actually see that average selling prices (ASP) mix headwind that we had in Q1 start reversing into a tailwind as we sell those products fob the terminal typically at pretty attractive average selling prices (ASP)s because you have the embedded rail freight in those. So I hope that answers your question there.
Ivan Yee
Thank you.
Ward Nye (Chair, President and Chief Executive Officer)
Very helpful.
OPERATOR
Thank you Anna.
Ward Nye (Chair, President and Chief Executive Officer)
And that concludes our question and answer session. I will now turn the conference back over to Mr. Wardnai for closing remarks. Abby thank you and thank you all for joining today's earnings conference call. We're very pleased with the company's strong start to 2026 marked by outstanding safety results, solid operational execution and resilient financial performance. The results reflect the strength of our strategy, the quality of our portfolio and most importantly, the dedication of our employees across the organization. Heading into the year's busier construction months. Martin Mariota enters the remainder of 2026 in a position of strength. Our aggregates led portfolio concentrated in the nation's most attractive markets, supported by a differentiated specialties business and a strong balance sheet provides us with resilience and flexibility to perform consistently across cycles and continue compounding long term value for our shareholders. We look forward to sharing our second quarter 2026 results in the summer. As always, we're available for any follow up questions. Thank you again for your time and
Disclaimer: This transcript is provided for informational purposes only. While we strive for accuracy, there may be errors or omissions in this automated transcription. For official company statements and financial information, please refer to the company's SEC filings and official press releases. Corporate participants' and analysts' statements reflect their views as of the date of this call and are subject to change without notice.
Login to comment