Earnings call transcript: Rush Enterprises Q1 2025 sees mixed results

Rush Enterprises reported its Q1 2025 earnings, revealing a slight miss on earnings per share (EPS) but a beat on revenue expectations. The company posted an EPS of $0.73, narrowly missing the forecast of $0.735, while revenue reached $1.85 billion, surpassing the expected $1.83 billion. According to InvestingPro analysis, Rush Enterprises maintains a "GOOD" overall financial health score, with particularly strong marks in profitability metrics. The stock appears slightly undervalued based on InvestingPro’s Fair Value calculations. In after-hours trading, Rush Enterprises’ stock (RUSHA) experienced a minor decline, closing at $50.99, reflecting a 0.1% decrease.

Key Takeaways

• Rush Enterprises’ Q1 2025 revenue exceeded forecasts by $20 million.
• EPS was slightly below expectations, marking a minor miss.
• The company’s stock saw a marginal decline of 0.1% in after-hours trading.
• Class Eight truck sales showed resilience despite broader market declines.
• The company anticipates continued growth in parts and service revenues.

Company Performance

Rush Enterprises demonstrated a solid performance in Q1 2025, with revenue reaching $1.85 billion. Despite a challenging market environment, the company maintained its competitive edge in truck sales, particularly in the vocational and public sector segments. The overall market for Class Eight trucks in the U.S. and Canada saw a 9% decline, yet Rush Enterprises managed to outperform its competitors, capturing a 6.1% market share in the U.S.

Financial Highlights

• Revenue: $1.85 billion, up from the forecast of $1.83 billion
• Earnings per share: $0.73, slightly below the forecast of $0.735
• Net Income: $60.3 million
• Cash Dividend: $0.18 per common share
• Parts, Service, and Body Shop Revenues: $619 million, a 4.6% decrease YoY

Earnings vs. Forecast

The company reported an EPS of $0.73, just below the forecasted $0.735, representing a slight miss. However, revenue surpassed expectations, coming in at $1.85 billion against a forecast of $1.83 billion. This revenue beat suggests strong operational performance despite the EPS shortfall.

Market Reaction

Following the earnings report, Rush Enterprises’ stock experienced a minor decline of 0.1% in after-hours trading, closing at $50.99. While the stock has declined 6.7% year-to-date, it has delivered an impressive 20.7% return over the past year, according to InvestingPro data. This movement reflects investor sentiment balancing the revenue beat against the slight EPS miss. The stock remains well within its 52-week range of $40.99 to $65.43, with analysts maintaining a bullish outlook and setting a target price of $60.

Outlook & Guidance

Looking forward, Rush Enterprises expects a slight improvement in Class Eight truck sales in the second quarter. The company also anticipates sequential growth in parts and service revenues, although uncertainties related to tariffs and emission regulations pose potential challenges for the latter half of 2025. With strong liquidity metrics and a current ratio of 1.45, the company appears well-positioned to navigate these challenges. Discover more exclusive insights and detailed analysis with InvestingPro, including access to comprehensive financial health scores and Fair Value calculations for over 1,400 US stocks.

Executive Commentary

CEO Rusty Rush highlighted the company’s adaptability in a volatile market, stating, "We’re nimble, we will sell trucks, we will work on trucks, and we will continue to produce solid results." He also expressed concerns about market uncertainties, noting, "The problem is they keep changing the rules, man."

Risks and Challenges

• Potential tariff changes could impact cost structures and profitability.
• Emission regulation uncertainties may affect future truck sales.
• Economic challenges could dampen demand in the latter half of 2025.
• Market volatility and pricing pressures continue to influence customer purchasing decisions.

Q&A

During the earnings call, analysts inquired about the company’s strategies to navigate market uncertainties and pricing volatility. Executives reassured stakeholders of their strategic focus on expanding the aftermarket sales force and optimizing operations to maintain competitive advantage.

Full transcript - Rush Enterprises A Inc (RUSHA) Q1 2025:

Call Moderator: Thank you. I would like to turn the call over now to Mr. Rusty Rush, Chairman, CEO and President. Please go ahead.

Rusty Rush, Chairman, CEO and President, Rush Enterprises: Well, good morning, everyone, and welcome to our first quarter twenty twenty five earnings call. With me on the call this morning are Jason Wilder, Chief Operating Officer Steve Keller, Chief Financial Officer Jay Hazelwood, Vice President and Controller and Michael Goldstone, Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary. Before we begin, Steve will say a few words regarding forward looking statements. Certain statements we will make today are considered forward looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Because these statements include risks and uncertainties, our actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward looking statements.

Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward looking statements include, but are not limited to, those discussed in our annual report on Form 10 ks for the year ended 12/31/2024, and our other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. As we stated in our news release yesterday, in the first quarter, we achieved revenues of $1,850,000,000 and net income of $60,300,000 or $0.73 per diluted share. We remain committed to returning value to our shareholders. So I’m proud to announce that our Board of Directors has again declared a cash dividend of $0.18 per common share for the quarter. The business environment in the first quarter was difficult to say the least.

The industry continues to struggle with the freight recession, economic uncertainty, growing concerns around US trade policies and tariffs, and the future of emissions regulations. These factors caused a slowdown in customer activity, particularly in the Class eight over the road segment. Truck sales to Class eight customers were weaker as we began the year. However, thanks to our continued focus on strategic initiatives and our diversified customer base, we managed to outperform the broader market in the first quarter, primarily due to strong sales to vocational and public sector customer. In the medium duty truck sales market, while the overall market was down, our unique ready to roll inventory program was particularly effective.

And again, we outperformed the industry with steady Class four-seven sales in the quarter. From a used truck perspective, we saw a typical seasonal pattern, slower sales in January and February, but a good pickup in March giving us sequential growth from the fourth quarter. With respect to our aftermarket results, our parts, service and body shop revenues were $619,000,000 in the quarter, down 4.6 compared to last year. Our absorption ratio was 128.6 compared to 130.1 in the quarter Q1 of twenty twenty four, but still very strong. Despite tough market conditions, we experienced a slight improvement in aftermarket sales revenues compared to the fourth quarter of last year, with demand from our public sector vocational and medium duty leasing customers remaining steady and sales to the energy sector beginning to pick up.

We also expanded our aftermarket sales force in the first quarter, which should help us provide an even higher level of service to our customers going forward. All things considered, in the first quarter. Looking ahead, we expect to see some improvement in aftermarket revenues in Q2. We added service technicians during the first quarter, which will allow us to decrease customer dwell time going forward. We also continue to optimize our parts delivery routes and improve our call center operations, which helped us serve more customers efficiently.

With respect to the second half of the year, we are actively monitoring the supply chain and the impact that proposed tariffs may have on parts availability and pricing. We believe that we are well positioned with our parts inventory to mitigate the effects of any potential supply chain disruptions. The Class eight new truck sales market continues to face challenges. ACT Research says that U. S.

And Canadian retail truck sales totaled 57,946 in the first quarter, down 9% year over year. By comparison, we were down 7.8%, selling 3,222 new Class eight trucks and accounting for 6.1% of the total U. S. Market and 1.1% of the new Class eight market in Canada. While this was a tough quarter, I am pleased that we outperformed the market.

Looking ahead at Q2 and the back half of the year, ACT Research revised its U. S. And Canadian Class eight sales forecast downward to 234,600 units in 2025, a 14.7% decline compared to last year. However, we do anticipate a slight improvement in Class eight sales in the second quarter due to the timing of some fleet deliveries. At this point, there’s too much market uncertainty to predict what demand will look like in the second half for our over the road customers.

But we remain optimistic about demand from our vocational and public sector customers throughout 2025. In medium duty sales, the overall market declined 3.5% in the first quarter, but our performance remained stable and we sold 3,329 new Class four-seven trucks outpacing the market and increasing our market share to 5.6 of The US Class four through seven market and 3.1% of the Canadian Class five through seven Canadian market. ACT Research forecasts US and Canadian sales of Class four through seven trucks to be 254,050 in 2025, down 7.2% compared to last year. Going forward, we expect customers to be cautious replacing vehicles rather than expanding their fleet. But our strategic approach to stocking work ready vehicles should allow us to meet customer needs when and where they need vehicles.

And we expect to continue to outperform the market this year. We sold seventeen sixty nine used trucks in the first quarter, down 2.7% compared to 2021. As of now, demand remains soft and tariffs haven’t yet affected used truck price, but we’ve been proactive in increasing inventories slightly in preparation for the spring and summer selling season. And we believe our stock levels are where they need to be to meet customer needs. Our rush truck leasing division delivered solid results again in the first quarter.

Leasing and rental revenue increased 2.3% compared to Q1 of twenty twenty four and totaled $90,000,000 for the quarter. Rental revenue was down just slightly year over year due to lower utilization rates, with full service leasing continues to perform well as we put additional vehicles into service. I’m confident that our leasing and rental business will stay strong throughout the year. While we faced our share of challenges in the first quarter, I’m proud of how our team has navigated the uncertainty that is currently impacting the commercial vehicle industry. As I said in the news release, what remains unclear for us and for the industry as a whole is how the second half of the year is going to play out.

The ongoing concerns around tariffs, their impact on the economy and how current emission regulations may be modified for making some customers hesitant to move forward with vehicle purchasing decisions. That said, I’m confident in our position as we navigate these challenges. And I believe our dealer network, strong relationships with customers and manufacturers, and our broad product offerings will allow us to respond quickly as these policies take shape. Before I close, I want to take a moment to thank our employees. The first quarter of twenty twenty five has been tough, but our team has shown incredible resilience.

They worked tirelessly to help customers through certain through these uncertain times, while keeping our long term goals in sight and continuing to manage expenses. Their dedication directly contributed to our performance this quarter, And I’m extremely grateful for their efforts. And with that, I’ll take your questions.

Call Moderator: Your first question comes from the line of Daniel Imbro with Stephens. Please go ahead.

Daniel Imbro, Analyst, Stephens: Yes. Hey, good morning, guys. Thanks for taking the questions.

Rusty Rush, Chairman, CEO and President, Rush Enterprises: Good morning, Daniel.

Daniel Imbro, Analyst, Stephens: Rusty, obviously a lot of moving pieces out there. Maybe we’ll just start on the demand backdrop. Exactly. You talk about maybe how new unit sales trended through the quarter and maybe here into April? We’ve seen a lot of the larger fleets lowering their CapEx orders.

I know those aren’t always your customers, but are your customers behaving in a similar way? Kind of what are your customers telling you about their planned expenditures for the rest of the year?

Rusty Rush, Chairman, CEO and President, Rush Enterprises: Well, I think, know, I’m taking, we’re taking the approach that hopefully as we get through the back half of the year, it’ll be somewhat similar to what Q2 was, right? With these ever moving tariffs that are going on besides business being rough, right? I mean, you’ve seen the earnings releases that have come out from all the carriers, right? And we do do business with those carriers. Not a lot of them, not all of them by any stretch, but they are they are a component of what we do.

So, you know, that the tariff bouncing around, is being made it very difficult. If you’d come to me sixty days ago, I would have said the same thing about q two that I’m telling you about the back half of the year. Okay. But once we got a little clarity, when I say clarity, we got clarity like sixty, ninety days out, but we don’t have clarity throughout the whole year. And that’s the toughest thing we’re dealing with.

Right? So, you know, I would’ve said, Oh boy, I’m really concerned about you too. As I, as I mentioned in there, we expect deliveries to be slightly up, not dramatically, but slightly ahead of what class eight deliveries were, in Q1. So, I mean, it’s just those uncertainties, you know, Daniel, mean, it’s like you said, a lot of people, I know people, I don’t, I’m not gonna name names, but I know people that have shut off total buying for the back half of the year. And it’s understood that, you know, that it’s just really, really difficult.

I don’t have to give you a, so I’m hoping the same thing happens with Q3 and Q4. It’s a you’ve heard me use this phrase a few times over the last year or so. It’s hand to mouth baby. And, but, know, it’s not something we’re not used to. I would tell you that backlogs while it the OEMs we deal with are not full for Q2 still, there are still slots available in June.

So as you can see, it’s hard to put your arms around, you know, where Q3 is gonna be when you still got slots available in Q2, not a, not a whole lot, but there are some, you know, slots that are available in Q2 and it’s, we won’t, we don’t have, I, it’s very difficult to price right now, you know, because tariffs just came up again last week, they’re being relooked at again. I mean, we still don’t have certainty around the emissions. Okay, you saw that a house maybe yesterday, you know, passed a bill is that housing is this, you know, is the federal government’s, going back and forth with car out in California, we’re gonna see how that all plays out, is we still we have, we do not have established emissions, and we have them, but they’re under seas right now, right or wrong, for, you know, for January ’27. Right? So I expect those to change.

I don’t have the detail. I’m not here. I’m not gonna project on what that will well, how it will change. But with the current administration that’s in it right now, there’s no question it’s gonna change, it’s probably next should change, but all these uncertainties just create, it’s hard to run a business living in an uncertain world like that. So it may be this way for a while.

Okay? Until things move out, and I can’t tell you when that is. I think there’s another mile, like we’ll get to the only emission side. I think we’re still forty five days or so away from getting more clarity. I know the bill was gonna be going to the house, as we tried to come up with a solution that makes sense, not the one that’s in place currently, which does not make sense.

And the terrorist thing, like I said, they’re relooking at it again as of last week. So, you know, I mean, I think we’re going to see us operating in these short windows. I don’t think you’re going to see these big backlogs out through the rest of the year. And if you do, if you’re counting on backlogs in the fourth quarter being worth the paper they’re written on, good luck, because things change quickly right now. So I think there will be some, you know, demand, but I’m in line with what ACT said when it comes to, you know, they’re off around 15%.

I’ll take that right now, to be honest with you for the year. As I look out there and see, you know, I’m not and I’m not trying to be Debbie Downer here about it, but it’s just the real reality of what we’re dealing with. But I think you see that, you know, we were still able to put put put out a pretty good border, given everything we’re dealing with. And I would hope that we’ll be able to continue to operate as look, you know, let’s go back. We don’t talk about Russia in particular.

I know I’m rambling on, but here we go. Let’s go back to 2020. Right? Let’s go back to COVID. We’ll look at the performance of the organization, whether we had allocation or we’re five weekly times, we’ve been able to perform and I’ve checked this to continue to perform as we go forward no matter what the environment is.

Daniel Imbro, Analyst, Stephens: Yes. Well, that’s tandem out, at least you guys have the experience and know this before. Maybe for my follow-up, Rusty, if you could just expand a bit on the parts and service. Obviously, was softer in 1Q. Was that more in any one part of the business, collision, big fleets for small fleets?

Then you mentioned you expected an improvement in 2Q. Did you mean a return to year over year growth or just sequentially higher than the first quarter?

Rusty Rush, Chairman, CEO and President, Rush Enterprises: Sequential. Okay. I’m hoping, but I’m not here to guarantee any year over year growth. Right? I think, you know, one of the key things is you asked about q one, we’ll start there.

You know, it started off slow. I mean, in January, I know there’s always weather, but we had we had more store shutdown days this year than we did the prior year. In January, it was some of the rough weather that came through. I was very concerned in January, we saw a pickup in February, and we saw a pickup from there into March. I mean, I’ll be honest, we just looked at April this morning, obviously it’s the May 1.

April was solid, it was choppy, maybe a little off per day average. But it looks like our, you know, our backlog is similar when I talk about that, that’s work in process is to what we’re at the March, similar within a point or so. So I’m not, you know, it’s just a little bit as choppy, right? You know, again, the uncertainty is wrapped around. Like right now, you go ask anybody what you’re seeing lots or less of is miles driven, miles driven is not really good.

You’ll see that customers, especially over the road customers are not putting the miles on their vehicles that they historically have. And obviously with less miles, probably needs less maintenance and less repair to go with it. That said, given, you know, the, the, the, the dynamics of all the, you know, the programs that we have out there, I do believe we’ll be able to have sequential growth because January and February were softer, right? We picked up through March, but a little bit choppy and maybe here I just looking at numbers today for April, but we’re real close. So, and typically these months are better months for us.

When do you get into May and June and July get into summer and your, you know, your air conditioning work picks up and things like that. You know, around, around the country because we got a lot of stores in the South. So I would, you know, look for sequential growth. I’m not here to commit to year over year growth. What I have to have to commit to is if you look at our expense management, you know, year over year, we were down in GNA, which is what I really look at.

I, you know, mean, S is nothing but a derivative of sales, but GNA was off five and a half percent year over year. That’s why you only saw a one and a half percent drop really, in the store operating, absorption number. Right? They’re four and a half down, but you’re only one and a half. You made a lot of it up from an expense perspective.

Right? That’s the key thing is we do have more than one lever to hit as we go without tearing it apart. So, know, again, choppy, you know, but we’re pretty fluid, as I’ve said, we proved that out over the last five years in the business model and we’ll continue to operate in the environment in the hand we’re dealt. And I’m confident in the company, I’m confident in our folks, I’m confident in our leadership that will make the right decisions to continue to, in my mind, outperform the market, even though we’re the only public drug dealer really that’s just a truck dealer. I don’t know, I get one or two other comps out there.

Do expect us to outperform like we have you which like we usually do in the past.

Daniel Imbro, Analyst, Stephens: All super helpful color. I really appreciate it and best of luck.

Rusty Rush, Chairman, CEO and President, Rush Enterprises: You bet. Thank you.

Call Moderator: Your next question comes from the line of Andrew Obin with Bank of America. Please go ahead.

Andrew Obin, Analyst, Bank of America: Hey Rusty, how are you?

Rusty Rush, Chairman, CEO and President, Rush Enterprises: I’m good, Andrew.

Andrew Obin, Analyst, Bank of America: Okay. So just as I hear you correct on second quarter, Class eight is gonna be better and sequentially, parts and services is gonna be better. That’s right. Right? I heard that correct.

Rusty Rush, Chairman, CEO and President, Rush Enterprises: Well, let’s let’s ease. Woah, Andrew. Woah. Woah. Woah.

Slightly. Oh, yeah.

Andrew Obin, Analyst, Bank of America: Nice. Let’s take one. No. Got it. Yeah.

Rusty Rush, Chairman, CEO and President, Rush Enterprises: Slightly. I’m not let’s don’t get carried away here. The problem the problem is the uncertainty, man. I tell you what it was exactly like if I knew. But if you hadn’t noticed since we had our first hundred days, every day has been different since January.

And I’m not being critical there, but, you know, stuff changes on a daily basis. It’s just, you know, it makes it very difficult running a business. And for me to give forecasts that are out there, that’s why I’m only going, you don’t see me going out in the back half of the year. I got told you on a minute ago on the call, I’m 69, couldn’t hold you Q2 ’60 days ago, but we were able to put something together when we got, you know, some clarity of what pricing was gonna be in Q2. Right.

But don’t, again, they’re relooking at tariffs again. So the back half of the year is still up in the air and also dealing with what’s going on in the economy.

Andrew Obin, Analyst, Bank of America: That makes slightly. Okay, no, totally appreciate it. And can you just tell us sequentially and I know in April, there were some holiday timing issues, but parts and services in April, did that get better or did that stay stable from March or did that slow down? How did it, how did, I know we’re getting hyper granular here, but was there a slowdown in April?

Rusty Rush, Chairman, CEO and President, Rush Enterprises: Yeah, okay. A slightly less than April per day average, but I attributed hopefully, hopefully I’m right. I’m attributed to the Easter week. Okay. Easter week, we did not have a very good week.

Right. I will tell you this. We closed good. You know, we didn’t catch it all up here at the end, but we did close better here over the last week. So

Andrew Obin, Analyst, Bank of America: Okay. Fine.

Rusty Rush, Chairman, CEO and President, Rush Enterprises: I’m hoping that we can maintain some of that. And, and, and by the way, it was still better than January and February. Okay. You know, per day average. So it wasn’t quite to where April was on a per day average, but you know, Easter week was a rough week and were, if you’d asked me where we ended up today, if you’d asked me a week ago, I would have taken it.

Okay. So I felt we had a good close to the month. I know we’re getting granular, but there’s certain pockets in the country that I can attribute. I know you always like to know where around the country, where things are, but there are certain pockets that you can attribute some of this, a little bit of softness to be honest with

Andrew Obin, Analyst, Bank of America: Okay, and then as I think just, I assume that D and A is just fixed is what it is, but as I think relative to ’twenty two, right? As I think about SG and A costs, is that a good baseline for what SG and A can be? Or we are so bare bones during COVID that it’s not applicable. And I should just assume that there has been some inflation over the past two, three years.

Rusty Rush, Chairman, CEO and President, Rush Enterprises: Yeah, no, let’s not go back to that far down. There’s no way I’m gonna get back down to that number right now. I’ll be cutting meat and bone out of the place. Couldn’t cost a little bit more money. Absolutely.

We didn’t give back all that inflationary pressures that we took in ’23 and ’22 is not like, it’s not like we’ve had deflation. So, you know, you continue to have inflation. That’s why we’ve maintained pretty flat since I made those cuts last year around, around this time, right now, a year ago, we’ve maintained, which is what’s allowed us, know, that’s why Q1 was off five and a half percent over last year’s Q1, we’ve been able to hold it. Is there more we can do? Possibly, We’re continuing to look at that, you know, on a rather daily weekly basis.

But again, because I get clarity, make those decisions. I try to ask continue to get clarity of the market I’m in. Right? I’m gonna, I’m gonna see how April closes. I’ll get the nets on April.

I’ll look at where we are from G and A perspective. I mean, when I say hand to mouth, it’s hand to mouth in every facet of the business. Is that, is that a bad thing? No, it’s just the reality of it, right? And I don’t think anybody, I’m very confident in our ability to react.

Maybe I can’t project as well as I’d like to project for you, but I’m very confident in our ability to react or proactively act, should I say, given what we see in front of us, it’s just the runway is really short. You know, there’s a, there’s a lot of haze, lot of fog, and when I roll off all the things that are going on, and that’s not just for me, that’s for our customers. And then we’re driven by what customers see, okay, what they do, what affects them. It’s hard to make a decision if you’re a customer to go out and make an acquisition of product, if you’re not gonna see any growth, even to what you’re running less miles, maybe you don’t have to replace it as often, right? I mean, there there’s, there’s a lot of things that are not positive, but out there from the macro perspective, the most positive thing is our ability in my mind to be able to navigate and make the right decisions given the market that we’re handed.

So I, you know, again, though, I’m not projecting doom and gloom in the back half. I’m just given uncertainty because I don’t have clarity for it. And as I get it, I’ll be happy to tell you.

Andrew Obin, Analyst, Bank of America: And what do you it would take for OEs to sort of get more clarity on sort of production schedules for the second half? Is it clarity on and I appreciate that it’s both uncertainty about whether or not we’re going to recession, but it’s also uncertainty about sort of treatment of their content under the new tariff rules? Do they go together hand in hand? Or I know that one of the competitors has sort of has given pricing, but it doesn’t seem to sort of drive demand for trucks. What sort of unclogs this bottleneck?

Rusty Rush, Chairman, CEO and President, Rush Enterprises: Well, one has, but there’s some stipulations wrapped around it. Remember those sometimes the devil’s in the detail, always remember that. And so, as you look at it, look, Andrew, it’s all the above. It’s because our customers business, it is our, you know, the clarity with terms, as I said, they just announced they’re gonna do a relook last week. That’s supposed to happen over the next few weeks.

That it could change again, just like it did on the automotive side today this week, right? I mean, we don’t, I mean, their business, our customers businesses, I think we saw that first quarter GDP results, go look at the earnings releases of the public carriers. They’re not that’s good. They haven’t been. And it’s no disrespect to them.

It’s just a fact of the market they’re dealing with. Okay. Fortunately, as I’ve talked about, we’ve had decent vocational business, decent, you know, municipal business that have allowed us to continue to perform. What’s gonna have to happen is business has to get better. Well, okay, we can’t have contraction in GDP and expect us to, for business to get any better, but people are gonna have to start running more miles.

You know, we’re gonna be, you it’s, and we gotta get clarity on tariffs. I mean, we think we have them right now. But as I said, they just announced last week to go to relook at it again. So, and we do not know about emissions. Okay.

I do believe it’s not gonna be as stringent in ’21. You know, we were supposed to have this big pre buy, right? Big pre buy, gonna start in ’25. That’s the end back half of ’25. Now, nobody even talks about it.

Why? Because we don’t even know the regs. The regs are not done. It’s probably forty five days. The house passed yesterday, some stuff around it, the Senate’s got to take it on.

But so again, that’s clarity, right? Are we gonna need it? So price gonna go up x? Are we gonna require these super long extended warranties? What is what’s the, you know, what are the milligrams going to be when they’re in the night stuff?

I mean, all the way to get we’re pushing out GHG three out into 02/1930. But there’s no, there’s no solid answer on all of that. And you throw all these things in along with a tough economy, and less, you know, not miles being driven. And I don’t have your answer. All I can tell you is that is I’m not predicting as doom and gloom.

I’m just saying it’s very it’s a short window. I cannot see out that far. And I don’t think anybody can really right now. Just

Andrew Obin, Analyst, Bank of America: the last question for me. What’s been access to credit? Are people still willing to finance customers? Sort of people who provide credit to the industry? Are they pulling on credit or they’re providing incentives?

What’s happening in terms of sort of liquidity in the market and ability for you and your customers to access credit? Easy or hard of the same? Thank you.

Rusty Rush, Chairman, CEO and President, Rush Enterprises: Not the same. Credit is not, I don’t see any issues with credit at the moment. I mean, there’s not a lot of people running around taking subprime credit. But other than that, if you’ve got, you know, if you’ve got a good balance sheet, you’ve got a good customer. No, I don’t think there’s still availability of money out there for you.

That’s not an issue. And I when you say incentives, I don’t know if you’re talking about vehicles or not. There really is nothing like that going on because we’re just pricing out a few months right now. Most of the manufacturers are, as I keep saying, our manufacturers stepped out, devils in the details. Understand sometimes, and that could be under since they announced last week that they’re relooking, I would be very, you know, concerned about I understand why manufacturers have not been able to stretch out.

I don’t like it neither do customers, but you’re living in an environment that changes, you know, it was changing February until March to April, and now we’re doing another relook. So it’s just, it’s just difficult. All I can tell you is, you know, I’m very confident in us. You know, track record speaks for itself. We’re nimble, we will make, we will sell trucks, we will work on trucks, and we will continue to produce solid results.

We have many levers to pull. It’s not just we don’t just sell drugs, we don’t just work to sell parts, we don’t just sell service. We sell a lot of different things. We have a dispense plans to work with. We have many different levers to outperform the market, regardless of the hand we’re dealt.

Okay. That’s all I can tell you about it. I don’t have the answers as to what the back half is gonna look like. But I can tell you, as soon as I know, I’ll let you know if you wanna know.

Andrew Obin, Analyst, Bank of America: I’ll take it. Thanks so much, Rusty.

Rusty Rush, Chairman, CEO and President, Rush Enterprises: You bet you.

Call Moderator: Your next question comes from the line of Avi Jarolovich of UBS. Please go ahead.

Avi Jarolovich, Analyst, UBS: Hi. Good morning, guys.

Rusty Rush, Chairman, CEO and President, Rush Enterprises: Good morning.

Avi Jarolovich, Analyst, UBS: So I know it’s, I know it’s gotta be hard to parse this out, but in the hesitancy that you are seeing from customers, when you say it’s more from the uncertainty to the prices or more the uncertainty on the macro impacts that would affect their revenues or profitability?

Rusty Rush, Chairman, CEO and President, Rush Enterprises: I would say first and foremost, their business, you know, I mean, I don’t know that I could, I’m not gonna say sixty, forty or 55, 40 five, it is both, you know, the first thing that needs to happen for someone to get confidence is your own business has to be solid, right? And I think if you read some of these reports, they’ve been really difficult, right? So, and you know, people can stretch out lives on vehicles, but it’s also very difficult when I can’t price them and tell them what I’m gonna sell them a truck for in October or November or you know, any of those things. So I get up, you do it with here your prices is with a caveat, unless somebody decides to change the tariff laws, you know, rules, you know, and customers understand that they don’t like it. We don’t like it.

But you know, for me to say, which is more, it’s both. Okay. I know that’s kind of a lame answer, but it’s the truth. And that’s all I ever tell. So, know, it’s the truth is both, but first your business has to be good.

Why am I first off, no one’s growing their fleet. Let’s get real. Okay. The only people that have, if you’re just trying to get replaced, but people can slow replacement down to, you know, products are not what they were thirty years ago. They’re much better.

You can put more miles on products. And by the way, if you’re not running as many miles, I can run it longer. Keep appreciating what I got and mileage, as I said earlier, I mentioned a couple of times miles being run on vehicles. I’m not getting the ton miles are getting the vehicles themselves or not, you know, or down. So I can probably stretch it out a little bit.

Again, you know, it’s just we, we just need some certainty around all of this by the way. Well, tell me what it’s gonna cost for a vehicle in January 27. I don’t know, we know it’s gonna be less than what it was projected to be a year ago. We just don’t know how those regs come out and how that affects, you know, the OEMs and the engine manufactured, and how it affects their, you know, what it’s going to take from a, you know, from a cost perspective, from their perspective, especially on the warranty piece. So, you know, their business first and then tariffs next, but we can, I can price you for sixty days, but I really can’t price you six months out without a caveat?

Avi Jarolovich, Analyst, UBS: That definitely makes sense. I guess part of what I’m trying to understand is just if the economy does end up holding up okay, what kind of demand destruction we could see just from the higher prices? I don’t know if you have a view on that. Be curious.

Rusty Rush, Chairman, CEO and President, Rush Enterprises: Well, I think I think we’ll see if we give the economy would hold up and just this is what it’s gonna be. You know, it’s something I’ve always told him, but you tell me the rules and I’ll figure out how to play the game. Problem is they keep changing the rules, man. And so that’s made it a little bit difficult, not just for me, but for my customer base. So the cost is what the cost is, you know, unfortunately, prices of trucks have gone up dramatically as we all know, it’s crazy to me.

I think back of how much they’ve accelerated over the last few years, basically the last couple of three. But, you know, and then your business has to be better. Why? So you can push those costs through. And that has not been the case.

We had an oversupply of trucks for a couple of years. Remember, we sold all those trucks and really in ’22 and ’23, and we still had a pretty big year in ’24 more than we were anticipating when we went into it. So, you know, there’s been an oversupply of trucks for the freight that’s out there. And it’s just, you know, it’s just been a, I’ve never seen a freight recession last this long, right? It’s been quite unique.

It’s on the negative side of uniqueness, by the way. So I mean, I know it’s, I’m hoping that we can get some stability and you know, in the, in the overall economy and continue to, I’m not sure where we’re at in the last couple of months of taking trucks out of the marketplace because we had to get a balance between supply and demand. So the customers we thought, remember six months ago, we thought we saw it turn, right? You know, we’re gonna get it turned and buy it right now. You know, they’re gonna get rate increases.

If they are, they’re really slight. You know, you’ve seen the reports that are out there. They’re not what we were anticipating giving on contracts six months ago, but who anticipated all this upheaval with, tariffs and everything else. And, you know, you look at what’s going on, it’ll be going on with the ports. We haven’t seen all the effects of it yet either.

You know, those effects are still coming downstream. Again, I’m not being Debbie Downer. I’m just a realist. And, you know, I I have concern for my stuff in California. You know, those sports with all that Chinese stuff that comes in and how much flows through the Port Of LA and the Port Of Long Beach that will navigate it, but it’s still not good for business overall.

You know, because what we’re doing is more of a longer term, all these tariffs to drive manufacturing back to our country, you don’t just add water and stir or flip a light switch, and we open up at new manufacturing plants. That takes time. There’s an interim of pain. Even our president said that there’s, you know, there’s gonna be some pain. And, you know, that’s what we’re dealing with.

And I think that’s what we will continue to deal with for the near term future. Because it’s just we haven’t gotten to all over yet by any stretch. Okay, I can tell you that. And then it keeps changing. So it’s just hard.

Avi Jarolovich, Analyst, UBS: Yeah, definitely understand that. Just wanna circle back to the regulations quickly. Last quarter, you felt pretty confident that we would still see the low NOx regulations take place, you know, with or without the warranty. You still think that’s the case or just no confident Well we can have a

Rusty Rush, Chairman, CEO and President, Rush Enterprises: great I don’t wanna don’t wanna get in where I shouldn’t be. I think you’re gonna have something lower. Yeah. But it’s not it may not be as low as what they had. Okay.

That’s being that’s being debated right now by people above my pay grade. So, I would tell you that, you know, insurance is gonna be lower than what it currently is, but it’s, it may not be as low as what was originally said or originally, you know, put out there. So, but that’s going on as we speak. Know, that debate is going on as we speak. And I don’t, you know, I’m giving insight into that would probably be a little out of my, I don’t think I should.

So I don’t know. Let’s see someone’s gonna die. Yeah, we’ll we’ll we’ll know. We’ll know in this quarter. That’s why I said earlier, we’ll know about forty five days or so we’ll know where we’re at.

By the time this quarter is over with, we’ll have the answers. I’m gonna just let it play out and stay out of it. I, it’s going to be a good thing. Okay. There’s nothing wrong.

What we were trying to do was just not right. This country in no way was prepared to flip a switch and everything go electric and all this stuff. Didn’t, we don’t have a grid, the infrastructure. That’s a long term equation and we had people running with it like, you know, it’s just easy, like add water and stir. Well, there’s a hundred and twenty years of infrastructure investment in internal combustion.

You’re not going to change it in five or six years. Was asinine to believe you could do that. So it’s a good thing how it works itself out as to what the levels are. Yes, we’re smarter people than me to figure out, but it’s going to be the right thing, right? It is the right thing to do.

So that’s all I can tell you, that does is it probably doesn’t drive as big a pre buy, right? Especially with a tough overall economic situation that we’re certainly liable to see caused by tariffs and taught not just by tariffs, but just everything that’s going on right now. So, you know, I will, I’m not, I’m not closing the door to a pre buy ’26 by any stretch, but you know, every day that goes by January ’27 gets closer. So you’re condensing it right and condensing that timeframe. And you’re fighting an uphill battle when you’ve got news, you know, the reports about how rough it is on customers anyway.

Regardless, you know, gotta have business regardless price of a truck, regardless of the technology, I’ve got to have my business fairly straight so I can go buy something, right? So, you know, those are some headwinds. So I, but I would expect a pre buy of some time. I just don’t think it’s, you can clearly say what it’ll be given the unknowns or regulations for first off, and the unknowns around the tariffs, really, when you talk about the federally unknown regulations, those regulations will have a lot to say, and then their business. Remember, first and foremost, it’s your own business.

I mean, I could take you back. I remember at 2010, when we switched to SCR. Okay, we were gonna have this big, big year in o nine. Well, remember, you remember o eight and o nine? Well, the economy kind of rolled over all that, didn’t it?

And you can go look at the numbers. O nine never made the pre buy it was supposed to. So, again, hopefully we can get the economy straight. Hopefully we can, you know, get the some of this, down some of this uncertainty that’s out there that’s been created, in this last one hundred days and get back on where we can see, you know, see a window, see a path in front of us to where, okay, I can make that investment, I can do this, can, I know where my business is going? That’s the key thing.

You know, all these things getting through getting flushed out and get giving us some direction. That’s the most important thing I can tell you for someone like myself, I know running my business, but I’ll say it one last time, is the fact that I am very confident in Rush Enterprises being able to make adjustments and navigate the uncertainties of the world we’re in and give performance above and beyond it and our peers.

Avi Jarolovich, Analyst, UBS: All makes sense to me. Alright. Appreciate the the perspective. Best of luck.

Rusty Rush, Chairman, CEO and President, Rush Enterprises: You bet.

Avi Jarolovich, Analyst, UBS: I

Call Moderator: will now turn the call back over to mister chairman CEO and president for the closing remarks. Please go ahead.

Rusty Rush, Chairman, CEO and President, Rush Enterprises: Sure. Well, I appreciate everyone’s, attendance this morning, and I look forward to talking to you, sometime in late July. Hopefully, hopefully, with some more certainty and clarity, maybe I can give you a six month window instead of a three month window. Okay. Anyway, everybody have a great day.

Thank you very much.

Call Moderator: Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes today’s call. Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect.

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