Earnings call transcript: Crossamerica Partners LP Q2 2025 beats earnings expectations

Published 07/08/2025, 18:00
Earnings call transcript: Crossamerica Partners LP Q2 2025 beats earnings expectations

CrossAmerica Partners LP has reported its financial results for the second quarter of 2025, significantly surpassing analysts’ expectations with an earnings per share (EPS) of $0.64 against a forecasted $0.20. The company also reported revenues of $961.93 million, exceeding the anticipated $793.52 million. The stock, which currently offers an impressive 10.46% dividend yield, saw a modest increase of 0.35%, closing at $20.08. According to InvestingPro data, the company has maintained dividend payments for 13 consecutive years, demonstrating strong commitment to shareholder returns.

Key Takeaways

  • CrossAmerica Partners posted an EPS surprise of 220%, significantly beating expectations.
  • Revenue exceeded forecasts by 21.22%, reaching $961.93 million.
  • The company reduced its debt by over $50 million, strengthening its financial position.
  • Despite strong earnings, the stock price saw only a modest increase, reflecting cautious investor sentiment.
  • Adjusted EBITDA declined by $5.5 million year-over-year, which could be a concern for future earnings.

Company Performance

CrossAmerica Partners demonstrated strong performance in Q2 2025, with net income reaching $25.2 million, up from $12.4 million in the same period last year. While the company faced challenges with a decline in adjusted EBITDA and distributable cash flow, InvestingPro analysis shows a FAIR overall Financial Health Score of 2.34, with particularly strong marks in profitability metrics. The company continues to focus on strategic initiatives such as asset sales and debt reduction to optimize its financial structure, maintaining a manageable debt-to-capital ratio of 0.54.

Financial Highlights

  • Revenue: $961.93 million, up from the forecasted $793.52 million.
  • Earnings per share: $0.64, exceeding the forecast of $0.20.
  • Net income: $25.2 million, compared to $12.4 million in 2024.
  • Adjusted EBITDA: $37.1 million, a decline of $5.5 million year-over-year.
  • Distributable cash flow: $22.4 million, down from $26.1 million in 2024.

Earnings vs. Forecast

CrossAmerica Partners achieved a significant earnings beat with an EPS of $0.64, compared to the forecasted $0.20, marking a 220% surprise. Revenue also surpassed expectations, coming in 21.22% higher than anticipated. This performance highlights the company’s strong operational execution and ability to navigate challenging market conditions.

Market Reaction

Despite the impressive earnings beat, CrossAmerica Partners’ stock saw a modest increase of 0.35%, closing at $20.08. According to InvestingPro analysis, the stock is currently trading near its Fair Value, with historically low price volatility (Beta: 0.49). The stock remains closer to its 52-week low of $19.05, suggesting potential for future growth if strong performance continues. The market’s cautious response may reflect concerns over the decline in adjusted EBITDA and distributable cash flow.

Outlook & Guidance

Looking forward, CrossAmerica Partners remains focused on asset sales and real estate optimization to enhance its financial position. The company aims to maintain a leverage ratio of approximately 4x and continues to strategically convert and divest sites to improve operational efficiency.

Executive Commentary

"We had a record dollar value of asset sales during the quarter," said CEO Charles Nifeng, highlighting the company’s successful divestiture strategy. CFO Mara Topper emphasized, "We remain focused on efficient expense management," indicating ongoing efforts to maintain financial discipline in a challenging environment.

Risks and Challenges

  • Declining adjusted EBITDA and distributable cash flow could pressure future earnings and distributions.
  • A challenging consumer spending environment may impact future revenue growth.
  • National fuel volume demand decline could affect retail and wholesale segments.
  • Continued market volatility and economic uncertainty present ongoing risks.
  • The company’s ability to maintain its leverage ratio and manage debt levels will be critical.

Q&A

No questions were asked during the earnings call, indicating a straightforward presentation of results and strategy by the company’s leadership.

Full transcript - Crossamerica Partners LP (CAPL) Q2 2025:

Operator: Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the CrossAmerica Partners Second Quarter twenty twenty five Earnings Call. At this time, all lines are in a listen only mode. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question and answer session. If at any time during this call you require immediate assistance, please press 0 for the operator. This call is being recorded on Thursday, 08/07/2025.

I would now like to turn the call over to Mara Topper, Chief Financial Officer. Please go ahead.

Mara Topper, Chief Financial Officer, CrossAmerica Partners: Thank you, operator. Good morning, and thank you for joining the CrossAmerica Partners second quarter twenty twenty five earnings call. With me today is Charles Nifeng, CEO and President. We’ll start off the call today with Charles providing some opening comments and an overview of Cross America’s operational performance for the second quarter, and then I will discuss the financial results. We will then open up the call to questions.

Today’s call will follow presentation slides that are available as part of the webcast and are posted on the CrossAmerica website. Before we begin, I would like to remind everyone that today’s call, including the question and answer session, may include forward looking statements regarding expected revenue, future plans, future operational metrics, and opportunities and expectations of the organization. There can be no assurance that management’s expectations, beliefs, and projections will be achieved or that actual results will not differ from expectations. Please see CrossAmerica’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including annual reports on Form 10 ks and quarterly reports on Form 10 Q for a discussion of important factors that could affect our actual results. Forward looking statements represent the judgment of CrossAmerica’s management as of today’s date, and the organization disclaims any intent or obligation to update any forward looking statements.

During today’s call, we may also provide certain performance measures that do not conform to U. S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, or GAAP. We have provided schedules that reconcile these non GAAP measures with our reported results on a GAAP basis as part of our earnings press release. Today’s call is being webcast, and a recording of this conference call will be available on the CrossAmerica website for a period of sixty days.

With that, I will now turn the call over to Charles.

Charles Nifeng, CEO and President, CrossAmerica Partners: Thank you, Maura. Maura and I appreciate everyone joining us this morning, and thank you for making the time to be with us today. During today’s call, I will go through some of the operating highlights for the second quarter. I will also provide commentary on the market and a few other updates as I typically do on our calls. Maura will then review in more detail our financial results.

Before I jump into a detailed review of our operating results, I want to highlight some important strategic actions that we executed during the quarter and then talk about our operating results from a high level. We had a record dollar value of asset sales during the quarter. We realized approximately $64,000,000 in proceeds from asset sales during the quarter that we primarily used to pay down debt. For the most part, we sold sites with continuing fuel supply relationships, so we realized an extremely attractive effective multiple on these divestitures. We also lessened our real estate ownership in markets such as Kansas and Colorado, which are not part of our long term strategic plans for real estate ownership.

So these transactions not only strengthened our financial position today, they also strengthened our operating portfolio today and for the future. On the operations side, our results reflect a continuation of the challenging environment as our results on an EBITDA basis were below the prior year, but significantly better than the first quarter. Fuel market volatility so far this year has been lower, limiting fuel margin opportunities. Consumers, particularly lower income, have been selective in their spending. While our fuel volume and store sales outperformed the industry for the quarter, they were still impacted by these factors, which weighed on our results.

With that backdrop, if you turn to slide four, I will briefly review in more detail some of our operating results for the quarter. For the 2025, our Retail segment gross profit decreased 1% to $76,100,000 compared to $76,600,000 in the 2024. The decrease was primarily driven by a decline in motor fuel gross profit. Our retail fuel margin was down slightly for the quarter compared to the prior year. For the quarter, our retail fuel margin on a cents per gallon basis decreased 1% year over year as our fuel margin was 37¢ per gallon in the 2025 compared to 37.3¢ per gallon in the 2024.

In comparison to the prior year, crude oil prices were less volatile during the 2025, which resulted in lower market volatility. And as a result, our retail fuel margins were slightly lower year over year. For volume on a same store basis, our overall retail volume declined 2% for the quarter year over year. Volume demand started off the quarter soft in April and improved from there the last weeks of June, ending the quarter on a strong note. Based on national demand data available to us, national volume demand was down approximately 4% for the quarter.

Compared to the first quarter, where our retail volume was approximately in line with national volume demand, this quarter, we returned to outperforming national volume demand while still achieving solid fuel margin results. In the period since the quarter end, overall retail same store volume has been down around 1%, while national volume demand has been down approximately 2% to 3%. In the same period, retail fuel margins have been higher than our second quarter fuel margins. For inside sales, on a same site basis, our inside sales were up approximately 2% compared to the prior year for the second quarter. Inside sales, excluding cigarettes, increased 4% year over year on a same store basis for the quarter.

Our beverage and food categories were strong performers for us this quarter, with the food results particularly encouraging given our ongoing initiatives in this category. Laura will provide more color on our food initiatives in her remarks. Based on national demand data available to us, national demand for inside store sales for the quarter was approximately flat on overall sales basis year over year. So on a relative basis, our retail segment inside sales outperformed the industry for the quarter. On the store merchandise margin front, our merchandise gross profit increased by 2% to 30,500,000 driven by our increased sales from the higher average store count and an increase in sales in our base business.

The store merchandise margin percentage declined slightly for the quarter compared to the prior year. In the period since the quarter end, same store inside sales have been up approximately 4% compared to the prior year. In our Retail segment, if you look at our total number of retail sites, our company operated site count decreased by 15 sites this quarter relative to the first quarter. The decrease in company operated sites reflects the asset sales we completed during the quarter. The divested locations were generally lower performing sites in markets that we have decided were no longer strategic for us.

Our commission agent site count increased modestly by two sites during the quarter relative to the first quarter as we continue to convert sites over to our retail class of trade as opportunities arise. We continue to look for opportunities in our portfolio to increase our retail exposure, and our overall strategy with retail has not changed. The divestitures this quarter represent our execution on our continued strategic focus on being in retail in the right markets. Our retail segment outperformed the market during the second quarter in both same store volume and store sales, although same store volume was down year over year. Our same store volume and store sales results reflect the challenging dynamics in the marketplace where certain consumer segments continue to feel pressure and have modified their purchasing behavior.

Our results on the expense side also reflect some of the same pressure, and Mara will touch on this in more detail in her comments. The retail operating environment improved towards the June, and July was an overall strong month from a volume, sales, and fuel margin perspective for us. Moving on to the wholesale segment. For the 2025, our wholesale segment gross profit declined 12% to $24,900,000 compared to $28,100,000 in the 2024. The decrease was primarily driven by a decline in fuel volume, fuel margin, and rental income.

The primary factor for the fuel volume and rental income decline by a significant degree was the conversion of certain lessee dealer sites to company operated and commission agent sites, which are now accounted for in the retail segment. Our wholesale motor fuel gross profit declined 9% to $15,200,000 in the 2025 from $16,600,000 in the 2024. Our fuel margin decreased 2% from 8.7¢ per gallon in the 2024 to 8.5¢ per gallon in the 2025. The decline in our wholesale fuel margin per gallon was primarily driven by movements in crude oil prices and lower prompt pay discounts associated with lower gasoline prices, which reflect the lower crude oil prices during the quarter compared to the prior year, partially offset by better sourcing costs. On product sourcing costs, we continue to make meaningful progress on this front and signed new agreements during the quarter that further reduced our product sourcing costs on a material number of gallons.

Our wholesale volume was 179,200,000 gallons for the 2025 compared to 192,100,000 gallons in the 2024, reflecting a decline of 7%. The decline in volume when compared to the same period in 2024 was primarily due to the conversion of certain lessee dealer sites to our retail class of trade. The gallons from these converted sites are now reflected in our retail segment results. For the quarter, our same store volume in the wholesale segment was down approximately 2% year over year. So the additional approximately 5% drop in volume, the difference between the overall volume decline of 7% and our same store volume decline of 2% for the segment was largely due to converting sites to the retail segment.

As mentioned in my retail segment comments, national demand data available to us indicated national volume demand was down around 4% for the quarter, so our same store wholesale volume performance for the second quarter outperformed overall national volume demand. In the period since the quarter end, wholesale same store volume has been down around 2%, so in line to slightly better than national volume demand, which has been down 2% to 3% over the same period. Regarding our wholesale rent, our base rent for the quarter was $9,300,000 compared to the prior year of $11,200,000 a decrease due to the conversion of certain lessee dealer sites to company operated sites as well as due to our real estate rationalization efforts. As you know, the rent dollars for the converted sites, while no longer in the form of rent, are now effectively in our Retail segment results through our fuel and store sales margins at these locations. As I touched on at the start of my comments, we had a record quarter for asset sales in the second quarter, divesting 60 sites for $64,000,000 in proceeds.

The impact of these sales is immediately apparent on our balance sheet at quarter end as we reduced debt by over $50,000,000 relative to the first quarter. Operationally, these sites were not strategic and were generally lower performing locations for us. However, we did retain fuel supply at the majority of the locations. And as a result, these asset sales were done at very attractive and effective multiples. We have a strong pipeline of asset sales for the rest of the year and expect to continue to add meaningfully to the total dollar value of sites divested by the end of the year.

Overall, during the second quarter, we made meaningful progress on our strategic goals with our divestitures, which strengthened our balance sheet and further optimized our operating portfolio for the future. Our operational results for the quarter on an EBITDA basis were lower year over year as we continue to navigate a challenging demand environment along with lower volatility in the fuel market. However, fuel volume and store sales demand at our sites was stronger than the overall market, indicating our solid market position and that the portfolio is well positioned for success. With that, I’ll turn it over to Mara to further discuss our financial results.

Mara Topper, Chief Financial Officer, CrossAmerica Partners: Thank you, Charles. If you would please turn to slide six, I would like to review our second quarter results for the partnership. We reported net income of $25,200,000 for the 2025 compared to net income of $12,400,000 in the 2024. This increase in net income was primarily driven by gains on the sale of assets that Charles discussed in his commentary, offset by a decline in adjusted EBITDA year over year. CrossAmerica recorded a net gain from asset sales and lease terminations of $28,400,000 during the 2025, compared to $5,600,000 during the 2024.

This was offset by an increase of $4,900,000 in depreciation, amortization and accretion expenses, primarily due to an increase in impairment charges for the current quarter compared to the prior year period, also related to our asset sales. I’ll add to Charles’ comments about some of the additional benefits to our balance sheet from our continued real estate rationalization efforts later in my comments. Adjusted EBITDA for the 2025 was $37,100,000 a decline of 5,500,000 from the same period of 2024, primarily due to a decline in fuel and rent gross profit and higher operating expenses. Our distributable cash flow for the 2025 was $22,400,000 a decline from twenty six point one million dollars for the 2024. The decrease in distributable cash flow was primarily due to our lower adjusted EBITDA for the quarter this year as well as slightly higher sustaining capital expenditures during the quarter.

These were offset by lower current income tax expense and a decline in interest expense due to a lower average interest rate and a lower average outstanding debt balance on our CAPL credit facility during the period. Our coverage ratio for the 2025 was 1.12 times compared to 1.3 times for the same period of 2024. Our distribution coverage for the trailing twelve month period ended 06/30/2025 was one times compared to 1.32 times for the same twelve month period ended 06/30/2024. During the 2025, the partnership paid a distribution of $0.05 $25 per unit. Charles provided information in his comments on our top line and gross profit metrics during the quarter and how they impacted our adjusted EBITDA compared to the prior year.

I will now touch on the expense portion of our operations. In total, across both segments, we reported operating expenses for the 2025 of $57,900,000 a $2,100,000 increase year over year. We reported G and A expenses for the quarter of $6,600,000 a $1,300,000 decrease year over year, resulting in a total expense increase for the organization of 1% over the course of the past year. As a result of our class of trade conversion activities, and specifically increasing our site count in our retail class of trade, We have increased our gross profits and had higher operating expenses in our retail class of trade, and higher operating expenses overall as a result. While our total expenses are up 1% over the past year, our second quarter total expenses were approximately 3% lower than our 2025, and meaningfully lower than the third and fourth quarters individually of 2024 as well.

As we have cycled through the first year of operations of many of our locations in their new classes of trade, which typically results in elevated expenses to onboard and upgrade the converted locations, We are experiencing a stabilization of our expense profile in our current class of trade site count. We will, of course, continue to experience seasonality of certain types of operating expenses in our stabilized portfolio, like increased labor in the summer and increased snowflower in the winter. Returning to our operating segments, Retail segment operating expenses for the second quarter increased $2,200,000 or 5%. This was driven primarily by a 5% increase in average segment site count year over year due to our class of trade conversions as well as same store increases. On a same store store level basis, operating expenses in our Retail segment were up approximately 3% for the 2025 compared to the 2024.

Within that increase, our labor expense at same store company operated locations increased 4% during the quarter, with that increase materially coming from newly opened branded food locations at existing sites within our company operated portfolio. We continue to feel good about our approach and management of labor, our largest single retail segment expense category. Other expense categories that contributed to our same store level operating expense increase in the retail segment were maintenance and environmental as well as shrink. Moving back to total operating expenses in our retail segment for the quarter. Our commission locations experienced an elevated expense profile compared to baseline during the quarter, primarily due to elevated repairs and maintenance spending for newly converted locations to this class of trade, which we expect to moderate in future quarters.

We remain focused on efficient expense management at our locations, ensuring that we are investing in customer facing areas that will drive the long term health and sustainability of our sites. Operating expenses in our Wholesale segment declined by $100,000 or 1% for the quarter year over year due to declines in site level operating expenses and management fees, as our wholesale segment average site count declined 8% year over year. On a year to date basis, wholesale segment operating expenses have declined $1,800,000 or 11%, compared

Charles Nifeng, CEO and President, CrossAmerica Partners: to

Mara Topper, Chief Financial Officer, CrossAmerica Partners: a 10% decline in segment average site count year over year. Our G and A expenses declined 17% for the quarter year over year, primarily driven by lower acquisition related costs, legal fees and equity compensation expense. Our G and A expense profile this quarter, excluding event driven acquisition costs and unit price movement impacts to equity compensation, is more indicative of our ongoing run rate in this area. Prior year G and A spending had elevated expenses from now concluded transactions or litigation, as well as we now conduct more transaction work in house as opposed to using third parties, which also produces cost savings that benefit our adjusted G and A expense profile. Moving to the next slide, we spent a total of $11,800,000 on capital expenditures during the second quarter, with $9,300,000 of that total being growth related capital expenditures and $2,500,000 of that being sustaining capital expenditures.

The slight increase in sustaining capital expenditures versus the prior year is in line with our expectations due to our increased company operated site count. Moving to our growth capital spending during the quarter, our spend remained focused on our company operated locations and included targeted fuel brand and backcourt refresh projects, oftentimes supported by our wholesale fuel supplier partners, as well as projects to increase food offerings, both our own and QSRs. Following some of these growth investments this quarter and over the past two years, we now operate 46 branded food locations within our company operated portfolio, approximately half of which are Subway restaurants, as well as more than 100 locations with our proprietary Made to Cook food program. These growth investments have and will contribute to our merchandise sales and margin results and help drive customer traffic onto our lots and into our stores. Turning to our balance sheet, the asset sale activities during the second quarter that Charles reviewed in his comments meaningfully helped us reduce our credit facility balance by $51,000,000 ending the quarter at a credit facility balance of $727,000,000 The decrease in our balance, combined with the gains on sale generated from our asset sale activities, resulted in a decrease in our credit facility defined leverage ratio to 3.65 times, compared to 4.36 times as of 12/31/2024.

This leverage ratio will also provide additional meaningful savings on our credit facility interest expense as we move forward. Our management team remains focused on the cash flow generation profile of our business, utilizing our normal course operations and our targeted real estate optimization efforts to manage our leverage ratio at approximately four times on a credit facility defined basis. Our asset sale activities during the quarter and reduced credit facility balance also helped improve our cash interest expense during the quarter, which decreased from $13,700,000 in the 2024 to $12,100,000 in the 2025. We also benefited from a lower average interest rate environment during the 2025. We also continue to benefit from the interest rate swaps we entered into during 2023 during the quarter.

At this time, a little more than 50% of our current credit facility balance is swapped to a fixed rate of approximately 3.4% blended, which remains an advantaged rate in the current rate environment. Our effective interest rate on the total capital credit facility at the end of the second quarter is 6.1%. In conclusion, as Charles noted, during the second quarter, the partnership showed a meaningful improvement over the 2025, although experienced challenges compared to the prior year. We successfully completed several asset sales, reducing our debt by more than $50,000,000 and strengthening our balance sheet. These transactions also positioned our operating portfolio for long term performance.

We remain focused as a team on continuing to execute across the business and are looking forward to the back half of the year, maintaining a strong balance sheet and generating value for our unitholders. With that, we will open it up for questions.

Operator: Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer please press the star button followed by the number one on your touch tone phone. You will hear a prompt that your hand has been raised. Should you wish to decline from the polling process, please press the star button followed by the number two. If you are using a speakerphone, please lift the handset before pressing any keys.

One moment, please, for your first question.

Charles Nifeng, CEO and President, CrossAmerica Partners: Well, it doesn’t appear that we have any questions today. Should you have any questions in the future, please feel free to reach out to us. Again, thank you for joining us, and have a great day.

This article was generated with the support of AI and reviewed by an editor. For more information see our T&C.

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