Sentiment Analysis of the earnings transcript to help figure out if there are any bullish or bearish sentiments that could be gathered from it. We're doing ML and AI based analysis on the earnings call to get some more insights.
Please consider a small donation if you think this website provides you with relevant information
| Statement |
|---|
| We're pleased with the progress made to improve this measure, while at the same time investing in our talent, customer engagement channels and technology capabilities |
| The WM team delivered a remarkably strong finish to 2023 driving fourth operating EBITDA 15% higher |
| This accelerated earnings growth led to full-year operating EBITDA that exceeded the high-end of our most recent guidance range by nearly $25 million and achieved the midpoint of our original expectations from the beginning of the year |
| Our strong financial results for both the quarter and the year were powered by our collection and disposal business |
| We have two large projects that are coming online in Q3 and so feel confident in our ability to hit the project timelines on both the recycling and renewable energy side |
| And once again, our success in managing the middle of the P&L really stands out in our results, as our teams continue to make progress in optimizing our cost structure with the help of technology and automation |
| But we feel good about the wage inflation |
| Operating EBITDA margin reached a record 29.9% in the fourth quarter and full-year margin expanded 90 basis points 28.9% |
| As 2024 kicks-off, we're confident that our continued focus on optimizing our cost structure and executing on sustainability growth projects sets us up for another year of outsized growth |
| I think one of the benefits we have is, we've got a tremendous network of transportation assets that allows us to access a lot of the prominent markets, I think the Southeast, the Gulf Coast is one where we are very, very well-positioned, in terms of our hazardous waste presence |
| We remain excited about the economic and environmental benefits of expanding our renewable natural gas and recycling platforms |
| There's obviously Colorado as an example, which is on the front and making sure that we're well-positioned to respond to the PROs when they eventually implement |
| And so, it is right to think about that being a really strong fundamental contributing factor to the long-term yield of this business |
| What I would tell you is, team has done a really good job of not compromising the quality of our fleet had shown up in our service and it's really starting to show up in the back half of the year in terms of our operating performance and we see that continuing into ‘24, and certainly as we get the benefit of some additional vehicles |
| But right now, we're going to continue to execute on this strong reporting that we've been able to accomplish |
| We're really proud of the work that the team did because, while it looks easy, it isn't |
| We've been talking about being disciplined in the way we approach pricing and over time in the last couple of quarters, we've been a great example that we've been able to really drive out, drive some operating efficiencies and drive out some of the labor dependency and Devina commented on the maintenance repair |
| It makes me proud to see the WM team out there making waste diversion operations run smoothly and demonstrating our sustainability leadership so well |
| We'll continue to set higher goals, but I'm pleased with the fact that we've been able to get to those goals that were pretty far in the out on the horizon we initially set them |
| So, I'm really proud of the team for executing so well on this and being able to stand up on this call today and last quarter as well and say those things that we put out there, those goals that we set, we're getting close to achieving those |
| We're more than pleased with the strong operational performance our team achieved in 2023 showing continuous improvement throughout the year with standout results in the fourth quarter |
| During this period, operating expenses as a percentage of revenue improved 240 basis points year-over-year landing at 60.3% and marking our second best quarterly performance ever |
| This improvement was primarily fueled by our collection and disposal business benefiting from the robust operating leverage of our strategic cost optimization |
| So, margins were super strong |
| These initiatives led to a substantial improvement in WM's cost to serve metrics, bringing estimated unit cost inflation to low-single-digits by the fourth quarter |
| When combined with solid results from our pricing initiatives, we greatly enhanced overall margins |
| Our strong second half performance translated into full-year operating expenses as a percentage of revenue of 61.7%, an improvement of 70 basis points |
| The five that we're going to bring online in 2024, we're going to have strong contribution from them exiting 2024 and this is going to be something we're going to continue to grow |
| But we do feel really good about the way we finished the year and honestly the way we've started the year so far through January |
| In the fourth quarter, we achieved a noteworthy milestone as driver turnover reaches lowest point at 18.4%, showing improvement as the year progressed |
| Statement |
|---|
| The caution for us, I would say that may have us below that seasonally adjusted margin outlook that you've done |
| This morning's numbers were maybe a little disappointing to the market |
| One, with higher recycling commodity prices, the brokerage business can actually put downward pressure on margin |
| Overall growth in landfill volumes was somewhat muted due to the elevated volumes from the Hurricane Ian clean up in 2022 |
| And so, that's not something we face fortunately, but they're also having challenges with labor |
| And your recollection of our outlook revision mid-year is spot on with regard to some of the softness we were seeing in the special waste part of the business |
| I think what you're seeing is that some of those, and I'm speaking just from this is somewhat anecdotal and speaking to some of those folks that we have acquired, is that, there's kind of a multitude of challenges for them, some of which we face and some of which we don't face |
| That measure was down to 9.1% in Q4 |
| Two, last year when we gave inflation outlook, we tended to see that inflation was sticking around and being more stubborn than we had predicted and so we're taking a more cautious view on inflationary pressures in the year ahead than we did a year ago |
| So, one that we might not face is a lack of a succession plan for some of these folks |
| Not surprisingly, the other collection lines of business were down, but that wasn't unexpected |
| Jerry Revich Devina, I wonder if you could just talk about margins, really outstanding performance by the team in the fourth quarter, if we were to just run the seasonally adjusted annual rate, that's about over 30% margin equivalent that you folks put up in the fourth quarter, the full-year guidance for ‘24 is about a point lower than that |
| And so, we did have a fairly muted outlook with regard to GDP when we built our plan |
| But as a reminder, commodity price expansion in the recycling line of business can have some margin compression because of the really high return on invested capital part of our brokerage business |
| The good news is that as you heard, John Morris, talk about it, we started to see that free up a bit and so Tara seeing the same thing on the RNG and recycling side, but we definitely had some supply chain constraints that contributed to this bit of a slowdown over 2022 in particular, but also the front half of 2023 |
| But there seems to be an uncertain year in front of us every time we come to this point |
| Some of the recent quarters, residential collection volumes declined modestly due to our intentional shedding of low margin contracts as we work to ensure that we achieved acceptable returns for all parts of our business |
| I know in 2023, there was a small decline in the event driven business that kind of prompted a guidance revision mid-year |
| It's one, some of the weather impacts that we saw in January |
| Fish And John, those supply chain constraints are not that different from what we've seen on the fleet side of our business either |
Please consider a small donation if you think this website provides you with relevant information