OneWater Marine Q3 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

  • Positive Sentiment: Margin and profitability improved: Third-quarter gross margin expanded 70 basis points to 24%, while adjusted EBITDA rose to $38 million from $33 million despite a 4% revenue decline. Management attributed the gains to favorable product mix, pricing discipline, cost reductions, and strategic brand exits.
  • Positive Sentiment: Balance sheet strengthened ahead of schedule: Adjusted net leverage improved to 3.7x from 5.8x a year ago, reaching the company’s under-4x year-end target early. OneWater said it is exploring debt refinancing options.
  • Negative Sentiment: Retail market remains challenging: Management now expects the marine industry to decline by high single digits year over year, with dealership same-store sales projected to fall by low to mid-single digits. Fiscal-year guidance was narrowed to revenue of $1.75 billion-$1.8 billion, adjusted EBITDA of $68 million-$78 million, and adjusted EPS of $0.35-$0.55.
  • Neutral Sentiment: Inventory and premium demand are holding up: New-boat revenue declined 2% and pre-owned revenue fell 4%, but higher average selling prices, disciplined inventory management, and stable customer engagement—particularly in premium brands—helped protect margins. July trends were described as flattish to slightly positive, though management said a broad market recovery has not yet arrived.
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Earnings Conference Call
OneWater Marine Q3 2026
00:00 / 00:00

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Operator

Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us, and welcome to OneWater Marine Inc. Fiscal Third Quarter 2026 conference call. 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 Jack Ezzell, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer. Jack, please go ahead.

Jack Ezzell
Jack Ezzell
CFO and COO at OneWater Marine

Good morning. Welcome to OneWater Marine's Fiscal Third Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. I'm joined on the call today by Austin Singleton, Executive Chairman, and Anthony Aisquith, Chief Executive Officer. Before we begin, I'd like to remind you that certain statements made by management during this morning's conference call regarding OneWater Marine and its operations may be considered forward-looking statements under securities law and involve a number of risks and uncertainties. As a result, the company cautions you that there are a number of factors, many of which are beyond the company's control, which could cause actual results and events to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements. Factors that might affect future results are disclosed in the company's earnings release, which can be found in the investor relations section of the company's website and in its filings with the SEC.

Jack Ezzell
Jack Ezzell
CFO and COO at OneWater Marine

The company disclaims any obligation or undertaking to update the forward-looking statements to reflect circumstances or events that occur after the date the forward-looking statements are made, except as required by law. Please note that all comparisons of our third quarter 2026 results are made against the third quarter 2025, unless otherwise noted. With that, I'd like to turn the call over to Austin Singleton, who will begin with a few opening remarks. Austin?

Austin Singleton
Austin Singleton
Executive Chairman at OneWater Marine

Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining today's call. We delivered solid third quarter results that reflect continued execution of our strategic priorities, despite a mixed retail environment. Throughout the year, we have remained focused on the levers within our control, optimizing inventory, expanding margin, and strengthening our balance sheet. While those actions required difficult decisions, they have positioned the business for stronger performance over the long term. As expected, we are starting to see these benefits reflected in our results. Despite revenue declining 4% year-over-year, we expanded gross margin by 70 basis points to 24%, driven by favorable product mix and the continued execution of our initiatives to enhance gross profit. As volume leverage returns, we believe the benefits of these actions will have a greater impact on our P&L. We also made good progress strengthening our balance sheet.

Austin Singleton
Austin Singleton
Executive Chairman at OneWater Marine

We continued to reduce debt and reach our year-end leverage target ahead of schedule, demonstrating the strength of our execution and disciplined capital management. At the same time, we maintained healthy inventory levels across our dealership network, positioning us to meet the demand while preserving financial flexibility. In the current macro environment, we remain focused on what we can control. We set out to streamline the business, strengthen operations, and improve our financial position. As a result, we are primed to deliver accelerated growth as the market recovers. With that, I'll turn the call over to Anthony.

Anthony Aisquith
Anthony Aisquith
CEO at OneWater Marine

Thanks, Austin, good morning, everyone. The retail environment remains challenging across the industry, particularly during what is typically the peak selling season. Even so, boating activity and customer engagement remains healthy, especially within our premium brands, giving us confidence in the underlying demand for the boating lifestyle. New boat revenue declined modestly as lower unit volumes were partially offset by higher average selling prices, reflecting disciplined pricing and a favorable product mix. Pre-owned revenue was down against a difficult prior year comparison, but underlying demand remains stable, and we continue to effectively manage our inventory, one of our core competitive strengths. The quality and age of profile of our new and pre-owned inventory positions us to meet customer demand while protecting margins. Over the past year, we've made significant progress optimizing inventory across the network. This disciplined execution has strengthened both our operational performance and our financial position.

Anthony Aisquith
Anthony Aisquith
CEO at OneWater Marine

Our parts and service business continued to demonstrate resilience. While reported revenue declined as a result of Ocean Bio-Chem sale, the underlying distribution business delivered year-over-year growth. Overall, we're pleased with the performance this quarter. Over the past year, we have made meaningful structural improvements to the business, strengthening our operating model, enhancing liquidity, and positioning the company to drive earnings growth as market conditions improve. At the same time, we have remained focused on delivering exceptional experience for our customers, reinforcing the foundation for long-term success. With that, I'll turn the call over to Jack.

Jack Ezzell
Jack Ezzell
CFO and COO at OneWater Marine

Thanks, Anthony. Revenue for the third quarter was $531 million, a decrease of 4% compared to the prior year, with same-store sales down 2% versus an industry that is down high single digits in the categories where we compete based on the SSI data. New boat revenue decreased 2%, driven by the impact of the strategic brand exits completed during the prior year, partially offset by higher average selling prices this year. Pre-owned boat revenue declined 4% against a difficult prior year comparison, which saw 18% growth. Service parts and other revenue declined 13%, primarily reflecting the impact of the Ocean Bio-Chem sale. Excluding the impact of the sale, the underlying service parts and other businesses increased year-over-year.

Jack Ezzell
Jack Ezzell
CFO and COO at OneWater Marine

Gross profit totaled $127 million, while gross profit margin expanded 70 basis points to 24%, reflecting a favorable product mix and continued execution of our strategic initiatives to enhance boat gross profit. Selling, general, and administrative expenses declined by 5% to $87 million, reflecting the benefits of our prior cost reduction actions and continued expense discipline. As a percentage of revenue, SG&A was down slightly as the benefits of these cost actions were mostly offset by lower revenue. Net income for the quarter totaled $12 million, or $0.69 per diluted share, compared to net income of $11 million or $0.65 per diluted share in the prior year period. The increase was primarily driven by higher income from operation and lower interest expense. Adjusted diluted earnings per share was $0.73 compared to $0.79 in the prior year period.

Jack Ezzell
Jack Ezzell
CFO and COO at OneWater Marine

Adjusted EBITDA totaled $38 million for the quarter, compared to $33 million in the prior year period. Turning to the balance sheet, we ended the quarter with $69 million of cash and cash equivalents. Inventory declined to $486 million, reflecting our disciplined inventory management and the impact of the Ocean Bio-Chem sale. Long-term debt was $348 million, and adjusted net leverage was 3.7x trailing 12-month adjusted EBITDA, a significant improvement from 5.8x in the prior year period. Our target was to finish the year under 4x. As Austin mentioned, we achieved our goal ahead of schedule. We are pleased with our progress, supported by strong cash flows, proceeds from the Ocean Bio-Chem sale, which were used to pay down debt. We are actively exploring debt refinancing options. We look forward to sharing an update with you later this year.

Jack Ezzell
Jack Ezzell
CFO and COO at OneWater Marine

Turning to our outlook, based on the year-to-date retail trends across our markets, we now expect the marine industry to be down high single digits year-over-year. Despite a challenging retail environment, we expect to continue to outperform the industry. As a result, we have updated and narrowed our guidance for the fiscal year. We now expect dealership same-store sales to be down low to mid-single digits. Revenue of $1.75 billion-$1.8 billion, which factors in current market trends, lost revenue from the exited brands, and the divestiture of Ocean Bio-Chem. We expect adjusted EBITDA of $68 million-$78 million. Adjusted diluted earnings per share of $0.35-$0.55. For additional context, we anticipate a roughly $2 million headwind to adjusted EBITDA in the fourth quarter as compared to the prior year as a result of the Ocean Bio-Chem sale.

Jack Ezzell
Jack Ezzell
CFO and COO at OneWater Marine

As we look ahead, our priorities remain unchanged. We will continue to focus on profitable growth, disciplined cost management, inventory optimization, and strengthening our balance sheet. We are starting to see the structural improvements we have made over the past year in our financial performance. These improvements have also created a more resilient business that is well-positioned to capitalize on improving market conditions and deliver long-term value for our shareholders. This concludes our prepared remarks. Operator, will you please open the line for questions?

Operator

We will now begin the 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. 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 comes from the line of Joe Altobello with Raymond James. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Mitchell Ingles
Mitchell Ingles
Associate Analyst at Raymond James

Hey, everyone. This is Mitchell Ingles on for Joe. My first question is, what's helping to offset the more muted top-line outlook, and what do you see driving the gross margin expansion at the segment level? How much of that would you parse for pricing, promotion, mix, anything else?

Anthony Aisquith
Anthony Aisquith
CEO at OneWater Marine

Jack, I'll let you take that.

Jack Ezzell
Jack Ezzell
CFO and COO at OneWater Marine

Yeah, I think it's largely driven by price and mix. We had exiting brands from the prior year that were weighing in on margins, That certainly helped with a tailwind to margins this year. We've kind of seen that in earlier quarters this year as well. No, we just continue to focus in on having the right inventory, having it showcased at our retail locations, and that drives the best price, that drives the best margin.

Anthony Aisquith
Anthony Aisquith
CEO at OneWater Marine

One thing I'd add to that, though, is that when you look at the industry as a whole, the industry inventory, especially in the more premium space that we're competing in, has cleaned up nicely. With the competition having lower inventory and being a little bit more focused on their margins, there's not as much of panic selling, fire selling, worrisome. Everybody's inventory's kind of gotten back in line, and that's what gives us a little bit of confidence in the overall stability of where we are and how we think that can continue as we move on through the rest of this year and into 2027.

Mitchell Ingles
Mitchell Ingles
Associate Analyst at Raymond James

Got it. That's helpful. My follow-up is, on the last earnings call you mentioned there was roughly $16 million-$17 million of sales that shifted from 2Q to 3Q on the Palm Beach Boat Show. Did that arrive? How would you say your intra-quarter July trends have been to date?

Jack Ezzell
Jack Ezzell
CFO and COO at OneWater Marine

July is trending positive. I think we should be at a, I'll say, flattish to slightly positive comp for the month. Yeah, I think the market's okay. The season's going well, but we're just not seeing it turn positive just yet. I think the latest SSI data came out with actually a low single-digit print, which we haven't seen a lot of that. It's still negative, but it's getting to a very small single digits. If you go back in time and look at it, we also had a low as mid in April. We haven't seen some of these lower digits. The question is: Is it slowing? Is it starting to turn? I'm optimistic, but we have to wait to see the data and how it pans out.

Mitchell Ingles
Mitchell Ingles
Associate Analyst at Raymond James

Great. Appreciate the color. Thank you.

Jack Ezzell
Jack Ezzell
CFO and COO at OneWater Marine

Yep, no problem.

Operator

As a reminder, to ask a question, please press star one to raise your hand. There are no further questions at this time. This concludes today's call. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect.

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