EquipmentShare.com (NASDAQ:EQPT) reported second-quarter financial results on Thursday. The transcript from the company's second-quarter earnings call has been provided below.
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Summary
EquipmentShare.com reported a 39% year-over-year increase in rental segment revenue and a 55% margin at mature rental locations in Q2 2026.
The company authorized a $500 million share repurchase program and plans to continue focusing on organic growth and industry transformation.
EquipmentShare.com expects approximately 33% growth in rental segment revenue for the full year, with a conservative outlook for the second half of 2026.
The OWN program continues to evolve, with institutional capital now comprising 45% of net OEC growth, offering a competitive cost of capital at approximately 7%.
The company enhanced its board with new independent directors and is winding down related-party transactions, aiming to reduce these arrangements significantly by the end of 2026.
EquipmentShare.com benefits from strong demand for large, complex construction projects and continues to differentiate through technology and service integration.
Management highlighted the scalability of the T3 platform, which is deepening customer relationships and expanding beyond rental into broader business management solutions.
The company reported total revenue of $1.4 billion for Q2 2026, with a 34% year-over-year growth in Adjusted Core EBITDA.
Full Transcript
OPERATOR
Inc. Q2 earnings. After today's prepared remarks, we will host a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, press star one again. I will now hand the conference over to Rhett Butler, VP of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.
Rhett Butler, Vice President, Investor Relations
Good morning and welcome to EquipmentShare.com's second quarter 2026 financial results conference call. Joining me today are Jabbok Schlacks, Founder and Chief Executive Officer; Willie Schlacks, Founder and President; Mark Wapita, Chief Data Officer and Executive Vice President of Finance; and Dave Marquardt, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Accounting Officer. Last night we issued our earnings press release and posted an earnings presentation to our investor relations website.
We encourage you to review those materials alongside today's remarks. Please be advised that the call is being recorded. Comments made on today's call and responses to your questions may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities laws. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. Please refer to our earnings press release, presentation, and SEC filings for a discussion of those risks.
EquipmentShare.com has no obligation to update or revise forward-looking statements made on this call. We will also reference certain non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP measures are included in our earnings press release. With that, I'll turn the call over to Jabbok.
Jabbok Schlacks, Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Thank you, Rhett, and good morning, everyone. EquipmentShare.com delivered another exceptional quarter supported by healthy customer demand, continued market share gains, and disciplined execution across the business. Rental segment revenue increased more than 39% year over year, and mature rental locations generated 55% trailing 12-month margins. Mature locations now represent 57.6% of our rental network. Adjusted core EBITDA grew to 531 million.
This is the metric we use to compare our performance with the rest of the rental industry that own and finance equipment entirely on balance sheet. We also expanded our fleet under management to nearly 10 billion of OEC. These results reflect the strength and durability of our growth model. Approximately 91% of rental segment revenue comes from national and regional customers supporting some of the largest and most complex construction projects in the country.
As we expand into new markets, approximately 75% of first-year rental segment revenue comes from customers already doing business with EquipmentShare.com. We believe this reflects the strength of our customer relationships and creates significant embedded earnings power as today's growth locations become tomorrow's mature markets. With our existing footprint, we believe at maturity this is already a $4 billion core EBITDA business. Our capital allocation decisions also reflect the strength of the business and our long-term outlook.
On July 9, our board authorized a 500 million share repurchase program through December 31, 2028, providing flexibility to act on compelling opportunities or market dislocations while remaining within our leverage and liquidity targets. While we believe that authorization is a prudent tool to have, our priority remains investing in the significant organic growth opportunities ahead and continuing to transform the industry. Moving to our updated outlook, the midpoint of our rental segment revenue guidance implies approximately 33% growth for the full year.
To put the second half in context, our guidance implies approximately 28% rental segment revenue growth in the back half against a second half of 2025 that itself grew approximately 36% year over year as large-scale megaprojects began ramping across our network. So while the full-year guide implies some conservatism in the back half of 2026, it represents very strong growth against an exceptionally strong prior-year comparison. There's also some timing to consider.
Our 39% growth in the second quarter represented significant outperformance as fleet absorption ran ahead of plan due to accelerated megaproject wins and our ability to deploy against that demand. In Q2 alone, we put more than 750 million of new fleet on rent for the first time, including fleet we had originally expected to deploy in Q3. Importantly, the underlying demand environment remains strong. Our megaproject pipeline continues to expand, we're seeing upward pressure on rental rates, and we have substantial new fleet coming into the business.
We're excited about the momentum heading into the second half of the year and believe the investments we have made set the stage for strong performance in 2027. Moving down the P&L, we also continue to expect modest rental segment market margin expansion in the second half as our network matures, fleet absorption improves, and we realize additional operating efficiencies. Taken together, we believe our guidance reflects conservative assumptions for the second half.
At the midpoint, we're guiding to approximately 28% growth against a prior-year period that grew approximately 36%. Given the demand visibility, deployed fleet, and continued strength in our megaproject pipeline, we believe the second half of the year is de-risked and we see a meaningful opportunity to outperform. Moving to the story of the quarter, the construction environment remains one of the strongest backdrops I've experienced in over 25 years in construction.
Demand across our core non-residential and industrial markets continues to be supported by large multi-year investments in data centers, advanced manufacturing, healthcare, energy, and transportation infrastructure. These large, complex projects require dependable service, coordinated execution, and long-term customer partnerships—areas where EquipmentShare.com continues to differentiate itself. Against that backdrop, we believe that EquipmentShare.com continues to grow substantially faster than the broader rental market while maintaining pricing at or above our rental competitors, demonstrating that our growth is being driven by the value we deliver rather than competing on price. That outperformance is driven by three factors. First, we continue to win with national and regional customers, which represented approximately 91% of our trailing 12-month revenue as of June 30, 2026. These customers increasingly want larger strategic partners that can consistently support projects across multiple markets through one integrated platform. Second, we're expanding our geographic network in response to identifiable customer demand.
We've opened 39 full-service rental locations year to date and remain on pace to meet our full-year expectations. Importantly, more than 75% of first-year revenue at new locations comes from customers already doing business with EquipmentShare.com elsewhere in our network. That customer pull is what gives us confidence to enter new markets and provides a strong foundation for those locations to scale. Third, T3 continues to deepen customer relationships by improving equipment visibility, reducing downtime, and helping customers manage increasingly complex job sites.
We continue to have strong visibility into customer demand and the project pipeline, reinforcing our confidence in the industry outlook. This is a different rental industry. Today projects are larger, longer duration, and more complex, giving us greater visibility into demand and confidence to continue investing beyond the opportunity. One recent customer relationship illustrates how these advantages come together. Earlier this quarter, I visited one of the largest healthcare construction projects underway in the United States, where EquipmentShare.com was selected as the sole-source equipment partner across core fleet, industrial tooling, fueling, temporary power, and job site technology. What stood out wasn't just the scale of the project; it was the depth of the partnership. The customer dedicated approximately five acres on the site to an EquipmentShare.com operations yard, complete with a full-service operations and maintenance facility built specifically for our team. Walking the job site, the customer talked about the visibility, service, and coordination we provide. But what impressed me most was that they were already planning to expand our relationship as they develop additional campuses around the country.
To me, that reflects a much broader trend. Whether it's healthcare, advanced manufacturing, data centers, energy, or transportation infrastructure, customers increasingly want a partner that can support the entire job site, not just provide equipment. That's exactly where EquipmentShare.com continues to win, allowing us to support more of our customers' equipment needs while capturing a greater share of their spending. Before turning the call over, I'd also like to briefly provide an update on our corporate governance initiatives and an update regarding a related-party transactions wind-down plan.
We've enhanced our board with the appointment of Damian and Harley as independent directors. Damian also joined our Audit Committee and brings significant public company and audit committee experience, including serving on the Audit Committee of a NASDAQ-listed public company. Harley brings deep knowledge of EquipmentShare.com, having previously served on our board during an important period of the company's growth. Historically, EquipmentShare.com entered into certain related-party arrangements involving the founders, primarily through participation in the owned program and property leases.
About a year ago, we began substantially reducing those arrangements, and we have made meaningful progress. As of the end of the second quarter, less than 1 million of the 5.5 billion owned program fleet remained owned by these related parties. Our remaining related-party arrangements involving the founders primarily relate to certain real estate used in our operations, for which we have paid just under 5 million in lease payments year to date. We remain committed to substantially reducing these related-party arrangements by the end of 2026, with the objective of transitioning off of these related-party transactions as we enter 2027.
I'll now turn it over to Willie to discuss T3.
Willie Schlacks (Founder and President)
Thanks, Jabbok. Turning to T3, we continue to see meaningful progress across all three ways a platform creates value for equipment share: improving our internal operations, deepening customer relationships in rental, and expanding our standalone SaaS business. First, we run our rental business on T3. Over the last several quarters, we've rolled out new capabilities across dispatch, hauling, fuel, and logistics. We use these tools every day, and they're improving route planning, increasing recovery rates, and helping offset some of the fuel and logistics pressures that we're seeing across the broader market.
More broadly, T3 and the AI tools we're developing and deploying into the field are helping us operate more efficiently as we scale. SG&A has continued to decline as a percentage of rental revenue. That reflects a business that is getting more done with less through technology-enabled execution. Second, T3 is an important driver of rental growth. Large regional and national customers increasingly expect real-time access, fleet visibility, and control across their job sites.
We provide T3 with every rental, and customers who engage with the platform spend approximately six times more with us than customers who do not. That customer value proposition, combined with our fleet, branch network, and service model, continues to deepen relationships and drive demand, which shows up in our growth and rental margins. And the last thing I'd highlight on T3 is that we're starting to see the platform mature beyond the rental experience.
Increasingly, larger customers are looking at T3 as a platform to manage more of their business: their mixed fleet, service, logistics, field operations, and, over time, broader ERP workflows. The scope of those conversations and the size of commitments are changing. As an example, my team has worked closely with customers spending over 1 million in annual recurring SaaS revenue on T3. The most important thing for that customer was seeing T3 as a platform they can run their business on and not simply a technology layer around EquipmentShare.com rental.
And with that, I will turn it over to Mark to discuss the OWN program.
Mark
Thanks, Willie. The OWN program is a managed asset program that allows us to scale our fleet to meet our customer demand at a cost of capital competitive with our on-balance-sheet financing. As a reminder, OWN is just one component of our diversified funding strategy. Alongside asset-backed financing options and access to high-yield markets, we have ample sources of capital to fund the fleet growth and meet customer demand through the first half of the year.
We are ahead of our OWN program execution plan due to continued excess demand across the platform. Turning to Slide 6 on our investor presentation, this page shows how the capital supporting the OWN program has evolved over the past two and a half years. In 2023, OWN represented approximately one third of our fleet under management, and participants were primarily high-net-worth individuals and family offices. Beginning in 2024, we expanded into institutional capital while continuing to develop our footprint across all three channels.
Since then, approximately 45% of the net OEC growth within the program has been funded through institutional buyers. That includes the four ABS transactions completed with large institutional investors. We introduced this as a new product to the ABS market, and as the program has scaled, it has generated significant investor interest and gained meaningful credibility in the market across all channels. When we evaluate diversification and counterparty exposure within OWN, we focus on the owners of the equipment.
Whether the participants access the program directly, through an institutional structure, or through a buying group, the underlying equipment owners are who provide the capital and hold title to the equipment. Each of the OWN channels remains multiple times oversubscribed. That competitive demand has allowed us to continue improving the economics of the program, which we will show more directly in the following slide. On the right side of the page, we provide a reminder of how OWN works and the contractual protections built into the program.
There are no minimum lease payments and no utilization guarantees. If the equipment does not generate rental revenue, no lease payment is owed. At the end of the lease term, which is generally six to seven years, EquipmentShare.com has no obligation to repurchase the equipment. There is no put right to EquipmentShare.com and no guaranteed residual value. These are long-duration agreements. If an OWN participant wants to remove equipment before the end of the agreement, significant early removal penalties of up to 50% of the equipment's OEC, or purchase price, apply.
Those provisions align the parties' economic interests. Given the magnitude of the penalties and the underlying economics, we view voluntary early removal as a remote outcome. Were it to occur, the contractual payment would provide meaningful economic protection to EquipmentShare.com. At the end of certain agreements, EquipmentShare.com may also serve as the remarketing agent. Our scale, equipment expertise, and relationships with OEMs and end buyers can help maximize the disposition value of those assets.
That can benefit the equipment owner while also helping protect the brand value of EquipmentShare.com and our OEM partners. In most agreements, we also have the right of first offer and right of first refusal at the market value of the equipment, typically supported by a third-party appraisal. That gives us the option to purchase equipment and bring it onto our balance sheet when doing so makes economic sense, but it is an option, not an obligation, and remains entirely at our discretion.
So, to reiterate, OWN has no minimum lease payments, no utilization guarantees, no residual value guarantees, and no obligation for EquipmentShare.com to repurchase the equipment. Now turning to the cost of funding for OWN on Slide 7. For transactions completed during the first half of 2026, the expected economics imply a balance-sheet-equivalent cost of capital of approximately 7%, making OWN a competitive and attractive source of long-duration fleet capital.
To be clear, OWN does not create a fixed payment obligation or financing liability. OWN is structured as a sale-leaseback with variable payments, enabling us to calculate an equivalent implied cost of capital based on the expected cash flows over the life of the agreement. To walk through the math, during the first half of the year we received approximately $728 million of gross sale proceeds from equipment sold into the OWN program. Using historical utilization assumptions, we expect to make approximately $649 million of net payments over the seven-year term.
Those payments are net of the fees that we retain and the insurance and tax costs that are borne by the equipment owners rather than EquipmentShare.com. Using standard industry depreciation curves, we estimate that the equipment will have a residual value of approximately $338 million at the end of the term. Calculating the implicit interest rate based on the upfront proceeds, expected monthly payments, and estimated terminal value produces an equivalent cost of capital of approximately 7%.
EquipmentShare.com has no obligation to repurchase the equipment at the end of the agreement. The estimated residual value is included solely to calculate the implied economics of the transaction, not because it represents a future obligation. Taken together, we believe OWN provides an efficient, scalable source of long-duration fleet capital, which is why we continue to target a balanced mix between OWN-funded and company-owned fleet. Finally, turning to the earnings contribution from the OWN program on Slide 8, with additional supporting data in the appendix on Slide 56, along with being a balance-sheet-light source of fleet capital, OWN is also a meaningful contributor to the earnings of our rental business. As I just mentioned in the previous slide, the all-in cash flows from the OWN program are substantially similar to our on-balance-sheet equipment. Importantly, the analysis on Slide 8 excludes the gain recognized when equipment is initially sold into the OWN program as well as any future remarketing fees we may earn at the end of the agreements. Those amounts are reported separately within our equipment sales segment.
As earlier OWN program vintages mature and newer transactions with improved economics become a larger portion of the portfolio, we believe the profitability and cash flow profile from the OWN-funded equipment can expand even further. The broader takeaway is straightforward. OWN not only provides balance sheet flexibility, but it also generates meaningful recurring earnings and cash flow similar to balance-sheet-funded equipment while supporting continued organic growth.
I'll now hand the call over to Dave.
Dave Marquardt, Chief Financial Officer
Thank you, Mark. The operating trends we discussed so far are clearly reflected in our financial performance. Strong customer demand, continued geographic expansion, and the increasing earnings power of our mature rental locations drove another quarter of exceptional growth while reinforcing the scalability of our business model. For the second quarter, total revenue was 1.4 billion, an increase of 26% year over year. Rental segment revenue was 908 million, an increase of more than 39% as compared to the prior year.
Rental segment Adjusted EBITDA was 449 million for the quarter, including approximately 60 million of new market startup costs. Our mature rental locations produced 55% trailing 12-month rental segment EBITDA margins; margins for the rental segment overall were up year over year, driven primarily by our maturing market footprint and customer relationships. Despite an approximately 50 basis point headwind due to increased fuel costs, we were able to preserve margins through our ability to pass price on to customers and through efficiency and cost savings initiatives.
We accomplished this while producing industry-leading growth and substantially expanding our customer reach. Equipment sales revenue for the second quarter was 483 million, including 428 million of equipment sales into the OWN program. Equipment Sales segment Adjusted EBITDA was 82 million, reflecting disciplined and selective sales into the OWN program which, as Mark discussed, continues to be oversubscribed across each funding channel. Adjusted Core EBITDA for the second quarter was 531 million, increasing 34% year over year.
That growth rate is driven by the margin mix between rental and sales segments. You can also see the mix difference implied in the full-year guidance. Adjusted Core EBITDA is intended to reflect our underlying operating performance by excluding items unique to our organic growth and fleet sourcing strategy, most notably OWN program payouts and new market startup costs. Turning now to our capital allocation strategy, we remain focused on supporting customer demand while maintaining substantial liquidity and financial flexibility.
At the end of the quarter, total available liquidity was 2.8 billion, consisting of 443 million of cash on hand, 980 million of availability under our ABL facility, and, on a pro forma basis, the 1.35 billion bond offering that closed on July 1st. The notes carry a 7 1/8 percent coupon and mature in 2034, providing us with attractive long-term financing while further extending the maturity profile of our capital structure. We used the net proceeds primarily to repay outstanding borrowings under our ABL facility and for general corporate purposes, increasing our available liquidity and financial flexibility.
Prior to the bond offering, Fitch assigned EquipmentShare.com its first issuer credit rating of BB- with a stable outlook. We believe this rating reflects the strength of our balance sheet, the quality of our rental fleet, and our enhanced financial flexibility. At the end of the quarter, net leverage was 3.0 turns as compared to 3.4 turns a year ago. Net rental capital expenditures during the quarter were 321 million after gross purchases of 689 million.
With that, I'll turn the call back over to Jabbok.
Jabbok Schlacks, Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Thanks, Dave. Wrapping up today's call, our second quarter results reinforced the strength of the EquipmentShare.com model as customer projects become larger and more complex. We're continuing to take share by combining equipment, technology, and service through one integrated platform that is driving durable rental segment growth today, and we believe it will create embedded earnings power and attractive returns on invested capital for years to come.
We're pleased with our performance in the first half, remain confident in our outlook, and continue to see a significant long-term opportunity ahead for EquipmentShare.com. Operator, we're now ready to take your questions.
OPERATOR
Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. Please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up. If you would like to ask a question, please press Star one to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, press Star one. Again, we ask that you pick up your handset when asking a question to allow for optimum sound quality. If you are muted locally, please remember to unmute your device. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster.
Your first question is from the line of Rob Wertheimer with Melius Research. Rob, your line is open. Please go ahead.
Rob Wertheimer, Analyst at Melius Research
Thank you. Hi, Jabbok. You mentioned a couple interesting things on the demand environment in your comments. I think you characterized it as one of the strongest you've seen in decades and also with improving rate. And so my question's going to be around rate and megaprojects and where rate is improving because there's been this perception that megaprojects might not be as profitable. And yet you just kind of went through a lot of the value-add that you can uniquely—and maybe some of the other leaders, but certainly you uniquely—can add.
And so where is rate trending? Is it stronger on megaprojects? And just in general, could you talk to that topic? Thank you.
Jabbok Schlacks, Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, absolutely. Thank you, Rob. I think if you look at the 91% mix of the regional and national customers, that exposure of EquipmentShare.com is to larger projects, these complex projects. So when you see the rate pressure that we're seeing going up, that is really 91% due to the complex projects and large projects. We talk about the healthcare, the sports stadiums, the data centers, the power. So that's really where we're seeing it. We do see some—again, if you think of the 9% smaller customers, localized customers, we still do see some there as well.
And that's more of a pull-through. When you have a limited environment of actual fleet, when you have a massive demand in that fleet, it's all ships rise to the tide. So we see that, but our real visibility is within that 91%.
Rob Wertheimer, Analyst at Melius Research
And then where are your customers at in the megaprojects in kind of seeing the value of this? So, you know, rental maybe 10, 20 years ago was you order up a piece of equipment and get it, and now you're providing a more holistic service with breadth of fleet, but also just the analytics, the manageability, all the things you kind of talked about in the presentation. Are people sort of seeing that value and do you have a pathway to sort of continue improving margins as you somehow charge for that systematic value?
And I'll stop there.
Jabbok Schlacks, Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, I think on the bigger customers, the projects are more complex today than they've ever been. I know we repeated that a bunch of times, but it definitely bears notice when you're managing projects that are 10 billion, 20 billion in nature. And if you talk to any of the customers that we deal with, if you had five, seven years ago a 2, 3 billion dollar project, that was a really significant project for a huge amount of customers, the largest in the world.
Now you hear every day 5, 10, 20, 30 billion. And we're on a huge portion of those projects. And many times we are the sole source provider—the first source they go for with equipment. And exactly as you're saying: billing. When you have technology—when you think of everything else that a customer of ours deals with every day—that might seem just like, okay, bills should be correct. When you think of construction and when you're managing 3, 4,000 machines, 6 to 10,000 people, getting that right every single day, getting that accuracy is incredibly important.
And that is driven by having a platform, having an operating system, stuff that we talk over and over, you've heard us talk about and you've seen that in action. So that is really important. But the output of what we're solving for is incredibly important to understand. At the end of the day, you do make more money, you do get a better return on capital. We see that with ours, with that 65% as well.
Rob Wertheimer, Analyst at Melius Research
Thank you.
OPERATOR
Your next question comes from the line of Jamie Cook with Truist. Jamie, your line is now open. Please go ahead.
Jamie Cook, Analyst at Truist
Hi. Congratulations on a nice quarter. I guess just my first question, obviously the market seemed fairly robust. While you raised your guidance when you pre-announced, you kept it the same, you know, today, but at the same time, like on your slides and you're saying you spend, you know, it sounds like there's a lot of opportunity for upside. So can you just walk me through, if there's upside, you know, where you see the biggest opportunities, you know, and would it be more third quarter related or fourth quarter related?
And then I guess my second question, it also sounds like you expect, you know, the rental segment margins to improve in the back half of the year. If you could just provide a little more color around that. Thank you.
Jabbok Schlacks, Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, I'll take the first part of that. We do see significant opportunity on the upside of that guide. As a company, we want to always be conservative and we do think, as we discussed, that has really de-risked the guide. And Mark, I'll pass over to Gavin for a little more color.
Gavin
Yeah, thanks. Yeah, thanks, Jamie. Like Jabbok said, we view the guide as conservative. And we mentioned in the call that we had a lot of fleet absorption in Q2—you know, over 750 million dollars of new equipment that had never been rented before rented in Q2. That flows through, obviously, into the back half. And then we saw a lot of volume in Q2 and some upward pricing pressure. We see even more upward pricing pressure from rental in the back half and beyond.
And then all the guide math—as Jabbok mentioned—the rental segment implied back half is about 28%, with the rental segment EBITDA actually growing about 29%. And so what we see there is EBITDA growing at a faster rate than revenue already implied in the guide, but with additional tailwinds in terms of volume, customer visibility, and also upward pricing pressure in the second half. So all of those are really where you would see, if there's opportunity to outperform, those are the main areas where we see it.
Jamie Cook, Analyst at Truist
Thank you.
OPERATOR
Your next question comes from the line of Mig Dobre with Baird. Mig, your line is now open. Please go ahead.
Mig Dobre, Analyst at Baird
Thank you and good morning, gentlemen. Maybe the first thing, I really appreciate all the additional disclosure surrounding the OWN program and, you know, your comment here on how the OWN program has evolved and, you know, the increased participation from institutional investors. I guess one of the things that we've heard from investors was speculation that as you're accessing this institutional channel, the cost of capital is going up. You've provided an example of what the cost of capital has been year to date, and I think I've heard Mark talk about the fact that as these vintages in terms of who's involved in the OWN program evolve, the economics actually get better. So I guess my question is, can you comment at all as to how this shifting mix towards institutional is impacting the cost of capital—whether that concern that you're going to operate with higher cost of capital is valid or not—and, you know, in general how we should think about OWN going forward?
Jabbok Schlacks, Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, thanks, Mig. Mark, you want to go ahead?
Dave Marquardt, Chief Financial Officer
Thanks, Nick, for the question. As you mentioned, first-half deals which we saw that kind of $728 million in gross proceeds, equivalent cost of capital is approximately 7% if you do the math, as we showed on the slide. That's a mix of institutional, family office, high-net-worth channels, and then, as we mentioned in the performance remarks, some of the older vintages that were more focused, and even before 2024 entirely focused, on the high-net-worth and family office channels carried a higher equivalent cost of capital.
So as those roll off, we expect those to improve. When we think about the competitive and oversubscribed nature of the OWN program today, when we're selecting deals, we see relatively equivalent cost of capital between that we have, and so we are cost-of-capital optimizers. And so when we decide to mix between an institutional, family office, or high-net-worth channel, they're going to have relatively similar cost of capital around that 7%, which is why you've seen that continue to compress in our favor as we've gotten a higher institutional mix and as the other channels have also matured.
Nick, Analyst
That's great. Then I guess my follow-up, going to Javic's comments on governance—appreciate the wind-down of the interest in ownership program as well as the real estate component. Can you comment on what the policies of the company are currently on a go-forward basis in terms of how related transactions are being reviewed and evaluated, what the thresholds are, really the mechanisms that the board currently has put in place? Thank you.
Jabbok Schlacks, Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, I think there's a helpful governance doc—which is consistent with how we and any other company that's public does governance—on our website. It absolutely points to that. But that is a consistent governance policy that we had even before going public. That governance policy was consistent through the private transaction transition to a public company. But absolutely, that will be on our website, and I can give you to Dave, and Dave can give a little more color on that as well.
Dave Marquardt, Chief Financial Officer
So our policy is that all related-party transactions go through an approval process where we evaluate the contractual terms, the economics of the transaction, and the accounting treatment. All related-party transactions are also approved by our audit committee. So again, as Jabbok mentioned, there's more discussion about our governance practices and policies on the investor website. I'd point you there for more information.
Nick, Analyst
Appreciate it.
OPERATOR
Your next question is from the line of Jerry Revich with Wells Fargo. Jerry, your line is now open. Please go ahead.
Jerry Revich, Analyst at Wells Fargo
Yes, hi, good morning everyone. Jabbok, I'm wondering if you could just talk about the dollar utilization acceleration that you folks saw 2Q versus 1Q—how broad-based was that? Was there any difference in performance of mature sites versus growing sites? And if you could just comment on the magnitude of rate pickup that you're seeing in an upcycle. Normally we see half a point to a point of sequential rate pickup per month. Are we at a point where we're seeing that type of pickup in the market?
Jabbok Schlacks, Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, thank you, Jerry, for the question. I'll talk to the first part and pass it to Mark. So we do see, as I said in the prepared remarks and what we see today, really a significant demand environment, which is across all cohorts. The cohorts specifically for us are the 1 through 12, and then the 13 through 24, and then the mature stores. So in all cohorts we're seeing significant increase in demand and upward pricing pressure. So that's a huge thing across, and we talked to that quite a bit in the prepared remarks.
I'll give you to Mark for additional color on the other question.
Mark
And then on the revenue side for the quarter, it was driven by both volume and pricing pressure upward—mostly volume in the second quarter. As we saw the higher fleet absorption, there was just so much fleet going on rent that that's what's going to drive a lot of the values there. A little bit of pricing pressure upward. We think that the upward pricing pressure, if those trends continue, we would see more in the back half of this year and in the later period.
But the mix is a lot of volume with more room to go on the pricing side.
Jerry Revich, Analyst at Wells Fargo
Super clear. And then just to shift gears in terms of the margin cadence, gross margins, excluding DDNA known program, were down a touch even though obviously the profitability growth was really strong. Can you just talk about how much of that is diesel pass-through versus site mix, and should we be thinking about a sequential improvement in percent margins like we typically do seasonally for you folks?
Mark
Great question. So yeah, as Dave mentioned in the prepared remarks, we did have approximately a 50-basis-point headwind on the fuel side. We also pass through a lot of those increases on the pricing side. Plus there's a mix of ancillary services and other services that we're providing on these mega sites that produce strong gross margin dollars and ROIC, but the margin mix is a little bit different as well. That being said, as you mentioned, from an SG&A leverage perspective and our ability to operate the business efficiently, we've seen total margin expansion over time.
And then, as you mentioned in the past too, the sequentials into Q3 are typically strong, and we wouldn't expect anything different from a gross margin perspective.
Jerry Revich, Analyst at Wells Fargo
Thank you.
OPERATOR
Your next question is from the line of Joe Ritchie with Goldman Sachs. Joe, your line is now open. Please go ahead.
Joe Ritchie, Analyst at Goldman Sachs
Hey guys, good morning. So you referenced upward pricing pressure a few times on this call already. And I guess what I'm trying to understand into the second half of the year—how much of that is, you know, contractually committed? Are you expecting a mix benefit on the equipment that's going to be utilized, given that you are working on all these complex projects and have line of sight?
Jabbok Schlacks, Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, I think it's both. If you think of mix, it's a really important thing in our industry. We have about 3,000 classes, and there's a different dollar utilization/financialization on each class. And depending on the project, you have excess demand and limited availability nationwide for certain products, which means you have an associated pricing pressure upward. So I really think it's both. We have long-term contracts, and those contracts are driven by the need of our customers.
And when there's less supply, more demand—pricing within some of those classes of equipment absolutely has upward pressure.
Dave Marquardt, Chief Financial Officer
And then just to follow on to that a little bit, Jabbok mentioned how the back half of the year is de-risked if you think about the long-term nature of these projects. As we're winning these projects, we have good visibility on where price will be for a good amount of our projects in the back half of the year and beyond, which also gives us confidence in the trends in the industry.
Joe Ritchie, Analyst at Goldman Sachs
Got it. That's helpful. And then just a quick question on capital allocation. You mentioned the buyback authorization earlier. Clearly number one priority is organic growth. But I'm curious under what conditions would you maybe get more aggressive with the buyback and potentially increase authorizations going forward?
Jabbok Schlacks, Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah. As we talked about in the prepared remarks, we want to be opportunistic if there is a severe dislocation on something none of us control, which is stock price. So we want to be absolutely opportunistic. Governance is important to us, so we wanted to make sure this went through the proper processes as a board and governance. And that's where the $500 million was authorized if and when there does happen a dislocation that the company can act upon in an efficient way.
And again, that's through 2028 for that $500 million. So Dave can talk a little bit more about some of the details.
Dave Marquardt, Chief Financial Officer
Yeah. I would just add that our intention is to operate the buyback authorization in an opportunistic way, but with in mind our net leverage and liquidity goals that we'll continue to maintain as we go forward.
Jabbok Schlacks, Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Thank you, Dave.
Joe Ritchie, Analyst at Goldman Sachs
Makes sense. Thank you.
OPERATOR
Your next question is from the line of Shawn Wandrach with Deutsche Bank. Sean, your line is now open. Please go ahead.
Shawn Wandrach, Analyst at Deutsche Bank
Hey, good morning. Really great quarter. I was curious if you could talk about some of the pockets of growth you're seeing in different areas of the country—maybe where you're seeing construction pick up more than others.
Jabbok Schlacks, Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, thank you. Great question. I think this is pretty clear—we're seeing it universally, and we are a growth company. You're growing almost 40% year over year, so that's in every segment. Areas that we started earlier, or earlier in that growth curve, you're going to see, from a percentage basis, a much faster growth. Areas that were more mature, which would be more the Midwest and the Texas area—still incredible growth, but just on a pure dollar percentage that's going to be a little bit [different on the] growth curve.
But we're really seeing it across the—
Shawn Wandrach, Analyst at Deutsche Bank
All right, that's it for me. Thank you.
OPERATOR
Your next question is from the line of Ken Newman with KeyBanc Capital Markets. Ken, your line is open. Please go ahead.
Ken Newman, Analyst at KeyBanc Capital Markets
Hey, good morning guys. Thanks for taking the question. Maybe for my first one, I think some of your other public peers this quarter have cited a tighter supply chain at the OEMs, making it maybe slightly more challenging to further ramp fleet growth. Obviously it doesn't seem like it, just given the OEC growth that you're guiding to, but just curious if you have any color on what you're hearing from the OEMs and your ability to kind of ramp fleet even further if you wanted to.
Jabbok Schlacks, Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, we're confident in our guide on our capex, and really that confidence is driven by years—years of working with our customers and working with our supply partners. And with those supply partners, we're planning years in advance. We talked about really the significant growth curve that we were seeing—this is three years ago—and when we do that, we have incredible visibility because [of the] tech stack and the visibility on the job site. So yeah, we're confident in our guide. With that said, this is more reminiscent of '21 and '22—we've all kind of lived through that—less so '23, '24, '25. There is a severe demand which, again, we talk about pricing pressure—that's a good thing. There's upward pressure on rental rates. So we see that improving not only for us but, again, with the industry as a whole.
Ken Newman, Analyst at KeyBanc Capital Markets
Got it. No, that makes sense. And then, for my follow-up, I'm a little surprised that the appraised value on the owned fleet seems sequentially flat versus the last quarter, even though the owned OEC is up 10% quarter over quarter. Is that driven by the mix of equipment? And maybe, just as a follow-on to that, is there a way to help us think about the right way to model the appraised value as a percent of OEC as we exit the year? I'd imagine it just comes up, given the fact that you're saying that there's going to be upward pressure on rental rates—it seems like the fleet is not over-fleeted, there's still some tightness in the chain.
How do you think about that as we think about modeling out the end of this year?
Jabbok Schlacks, Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Great question. Mark, you want to take that?
Mark
Yeah, thanks for the question, Ken. To remind you how the process works, this is a third-party appraised value of the fleet. And what we're seeing in the actual kind of appraisal numbers is lagging the total market dynamics that we're seeing as well. So there's just normal depreciation in there first, which was a little bit higher than regular, but it wasn't really out of control. And then what we do expect is, given the supply chain constraints, given the demand environment, that you'll start seeing the appraised value of the fleet go the opposite direction as the market dynamics change.
But yeah, there's just normal depreciation built in there, plus a little bit of adds obviously in the new OWN program. And there's a lagging. We see right now that the equipment fleet valuations are a lagging indicator compared to what we're seeing in the market. But from a full-year perspective, we expect there to be some offsetting trends in terms of their appraisals picking up with the market dynamics over time.
Ken Newman, Analyst at KeyBanc Capital Markets
Understood. Very helpful, thanks.
OPERATOR
Your next question comes from the line of Seth Weber with BNP Paribas. Seth, your line is open. Please go ahead.
Seth Weber, Analyst at BNP Paribas
Hi guys. Good morning. Thanks for taking the question. I guess the capex raise that you announced last month, can you just talk to, is that all, you know, is that kind of consistent with your rental fleet mix or are you starting to ramp up and add more specialty equipment as you're, you know, catering to these bigger projects? I mean, I saw specialty ticked up just a little bit as a percentage of mix, but do you think that specialty will get a larger portion of your capex going forward?
Thank you.
Jabbok Schlacks, Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, I think it's consistent with the cohorts. We're seeing significant demand across our core fleets. Our advanced solution, which we call our specialty, our site solutions. So we're seeing very, very good growth across all those segments. We have one of the fastest-growing specialty business in the world, but that is paired up very closely with one of the fastest-growing core business in the world in the rental space. So we do see that being somewhat consistent because the demand is very consistent as far as a high-demand environment.
And then again, we talk about that increase in pricing on the fleet, and that is consistent across core and specialty as well. So absolutely, you will see some growth especially, but it will be relatively consistent across the board as the company grows.
Seth Weber, Analyst at BNP Paribas
Okay, thanks. And then I just wanted to go back to your comments about the mega projects, you know, and asking about your comments around share gains. I mean, can you just sort of frame that, like, do you feel like you're taking share on the mega projects from other national operators or is it more, you know, just the local regional operators that are seeding share here to the, to all of the bigger national players. Thank you. On these big mega projects. Thanks.
Jabbok Schlacks, Founder and Chief Executive Officer
You know, great question. What we're doing now, and this was not true a decade ago when we started, but these customers that have been with us for years and years and years are awarding us at the outset. So it's not that we're taking it from somebody else. And just to put in context, there's really only four companies in the world that can deploy in the United States market 3,000 to 4,000 machines in a six- to eight-week period. That's it. So in that 91% or the vast majority of what we're doing, it's a very limited cohort of actual companies that provide it.
So we're winning an outsized share of these projects on national and regional. And it's because of everything we talk about. I know we haven't talked about it as much in this call, but it's going to the core of what these customers need. It's that transparency, it's that technology. It's the basics like getting billing right, doing the right thing, giving visibility on who's using a machine, what they're doing. And that translates—you've heard us talk about a lot—to us winning more jobs.
It's not necessarily taking from somebody else. It's winning day one. I talked about one of the projects, which is one of many projects that we have. This is not necessarily—we talk about data center, we talk about power—but this is healthcare. This, our sports stadiums, they need the same transparency, and we're winning on those projects as well. And again, that 91% is that regional and national cohort.
Seth Weber, Analyst at BNP Paribas
Thank you guys. Appreciate the color.
OPERATOR
Your next question comes from the line of Scott Schneeberger with Oppenheimer. Scott, your line is now open. Please go ahead.
Scott Schneeberger, Analyst at Oppenheimer
Thanks very much and good morning everyone. I wanted to ask around mature location, adjusted EBITDA margins. 55% in 1H26, and that's up from end of last year. Long-term guide greater than 50. You know, are we seeing the potential to hit new levels given this demand—how long, long sustained do we need to see this demand to maybe think about a new level there being achieved? Thanks.
Jabbok Schlacks, Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah. Mark, you want to dig in?
Mark
Yeah, Scott, thanks for the question. Yeah, so like you mentioned, trailing 12 months at 630, 55% mature site rental segment EBITDA margins, which we're happy to see. We think that there is obviously a strong environment. Some of the things we mentioned today give us an opportunity to outperform against that. And as you mentioned, our long-term goal is that 50%; I would pair that with our over 20% ROIC target. The reality is that we put 50% on there because if we decide to go into these sort of ancillary and other services mixes that might have a little bit of a margin mix based on the nature of the services, but high ROIC, that gives us the ability to continue to manage in that over 50% zone. But doing so would be on a higher revenue, higher revenue, higher bottom-line contribution and a higher ROIC basis. And so that's kind of how we think about being a full-service provider, especially with the site solutions and advanced solutions business that we have as well. But on the basis that you're talking about for the 55, we see that a sustainable opportunity to outperform and we think that'll be stable over these next couple years.
Scott Schneeberger, Analyst at Oppenheimer
Thanks, Mark. And for a follow-up, it's smaller but rapidly growing—six building material locations in the start of the year and other revenue growing rapidly. Just curious, how is that being rolled out and scaled? Is that just attachment to mega projects that you're working on or is that strategic locations? And just curious where that, you know, updated thoughts on where that might go over the next few years. Thank you.
Jabbok Schlacks, Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, thanks. Question on that side, really when you're starting a new division, you're starting in the middle market and then you go both up—mega projects—and down to smaller customers. So when you see that the verticals that we're starting that are very supportive of our customers, we're starting very strategically within that middle market and then growing from there, and you see that in the building materials. The difference there is probably the other division, when you think of T3 and the technology, that's really the core of what the largest companies in the world utilize.
And then it gives them that transparency, the things we talked about, the details that they actually need. So that would be a little bit of a diversion. The other verticals you see as we add on throughout that wheel, those are going to start within the middle market.
Scott Schneeberger, Analyst at Oppenheimer
Okay, thanks.
OPERATOR
Your next question comes from the line of Stephen Fisher with UBS. Stephen, your line is now open. Please go ahead.
Stephen Fisher, Analyst at UBS
Thanks. Good morning. Just want to follow up on Seth's question before. In terms of the market share on these mega projects, how do you see your role on these large projects, projects involving—we understand that on these really big mega projects, there's often a primary and then a secondary rental provider, sometimes more. Just curious, how many primary assignments have you gotten recently? Are you seeing that pick up and kind of where are you best positioned for those primary assignments?
Jabbok Schlacks, Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, the vast majority that we talk about, we are the primary. We're the primary. And I think, as you know, in the industry, when you have 3,000 classes, it's rare they're going to provide 100% of every single class of equipment. So when we discuss primary, you're usually ranging from 85% to 95% of every single machine in that project. And on the vast majority—very close to all—but the vast majority of the projects, we are the primary.
Stephen Fisher, Analyst at UBS
Okay, that's helpful. And then on the OWN program, I think the activity tends to be higher in Q2 and Q4. You can correct me on that if that's not right. This quarter, the gains on sale to the OWN program contributed about 20% of your gross profit for the quarter. And it sounds like demand was maybe more than you expected. So I would think generally you'd see a bit of a reduction in that activity and contribution in Q3. But given that demand remains pretty strong and elevated, how should we frame the expectations for those contributions from the OWN program in Q3?
Thank you.
Mark
You're right about that. So in Q2 and Q4, when we typically concentrate the sales, we had a lot of strong demand through our institutional and high net worth channels. Q3 we would expect, especially given prior years—this year as well—less contribution margin in Q3, and then a step up in Q4, because we like to concentrate those sales in Q2 and Q4 to create kind of the competition that drives down the price and gives us good allocation. And then on the actual OWN program pacing, we are slightly ahead of the total program contribution for the year.
We've raised the guide by about $11 million since the beginning of the year. So we call ourselves slightly ahead, but kind of right on schedule from the Q2 and Q4 perspective.
Stephen Fisher, Analyst at UBS
Thank you very much.
OPERATOR
Your next question comes from the line of Erin Kimson with Citizens LLC. Erin, your line is open. Please go ahead.
Erin Kimson, Analyst at Citizens
Great, thank you. I consistently get investor questions on how EquipmentShare.com would manage in a potential downturn. I think slide 50 in the deck does a good job showing how two peers cut capex amidst lower demand to produce more cash in the Great Financial Crisis before reinvesting into the recovery. But where a lot of investors get hung up is on the OWN program given its novelty in the industry. So to build on Mark's prepared remarks, can you walk us through whether you think the OWN program will be a net positive or negative relative to peers in a macro downturn, and who ultimately has recourse on the OWN equipment if OWN program participants default and you may have to try and collect the early removal fees.
Jabbok Schlacks, Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Hey Mark, you want to take that?
Dave Marquardt, Chief Financial Officer
Yeah, yeah. Thanks, Aaron, for the question. So, on a broader perspective, we have all the levers that traditional rental companies have, plus a few that are specific to us. Because we're an organic grower, we delay or stop our site openings in a downturn. We reduce our gross capex. Our equipment age is significantly younger than the rest of the industry, and so we have more time to age the fleet, which is obviously cash-flow positive. And then also, we can still sell our on-balance-sheet fleet to generate cash flow.
In our models, in a downturn, we generate significant free cash flow quite quickly, within a couple months, if we stop our growth. On the own program dynamics specifically, we are not at recourse in any macro environment for the equipment. These are variable payments. So if there's less revenue share, there are fewer payments to make. And then, for the actual participants themselves, they are the at-risk capital owners of the equipment. They have the UCC filings — that's their title — and we are the managers of the equipment.
I also mentioned in the prepared remarks that the actual voluntary removal penalties are so high that we consider those possibilities remote, and even if they did, it would be an economic advantage for equipment services. We're all aligned from that perspective. We see the own program as giving us additional protections in the downside, while also giving — we also have the traditional levers to produce free cash flow in a downturn that the other rental companies would have as well.
Aaron, Analyst
Got it. That's really helpful. And then as a follow-up, it seems like at least once a week there's a headline on potential data center moratoriums or restrictions at the state or local level. The governor here in New York just signed an executive order last month putting a moratorium on new data center builds for hyperscalers. I know EquipmentShare.com is under-indexed in the Northeast and has a diversified pipeline beyond data centers. But given that you specialize in mega projects and data centers constitute a lot of those projects right now, how closely do you consider potential state and local data center attitudes when prioritizing branch expansion locations today, if at all?
Jabbok Schlacks, Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, that's a great question. So the one thing I'd like to point out is we talk a lot about data centers, but this is really a very, very diverse environment from a tailwinds perspective. You've got stadiums, healthcare — things we talk about — power, infrastructure. Even without data centers, there's a huge, huge demand for a company like EquipmentShare.com in our sector. With that said, the comment on data centers I think is really important to understand the permitting process around this.
Many of these are four- or five-year permitting processes and have already been in place, and you're not pulling a permit that has already been issued; it's already been approved. So the projects that we're being awarded, these sole-source projects that we're seeing all over the country, those are not going away anytime soon. And as we know, regulatory environments change. We have visibility years and years and years in the future because that permitting is already done.
OPERATOR
Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the call back to Jabbok Schlacks for closing remarks.
Jabbok Schlacks, Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, thank you, everyone. Really appreciate spending time with us today. We're looking forward to talking again next quarter. Have a great day.
OPERATOR
This concludes today's call. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect.
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.
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