Nacco (NC) Q1 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

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DATE

Thursday, May 7, 2026 at 8:30 a.m. ET

CALL PARTICIPANTS

• President and Chief Executive Officer — John C. Butler
• Senior Vice President and Controller — Elizabeth R. Loveman
• Investor Relations — Christina Kmetko

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TAKEAWAYS

• Operating Profit Growth -- Operating profit increased 43% year over year and 45% sequentially, led by utility coal and contract mining performance.
• Adjusted EBITDA -- Adjusted EBITDA rose 28% to $16.4 million, compared to $12.8 million in the prior year.
• Net Income -- Net income was $8.8 million, or $1.17 per share, up 80% from $4.9 million, or $0.66 per share, in the prior year.
• Segment Operating Profit -- Utility Coal Mining reported $7.4 million in operating profit, nearly doubling from $3.8 million, while segment adjusted EBITDA increased to $9.7 million from $5.8 million.
• Contract Mining Initiatives -- Contract Mining first-quarter profit increased substantially, buoyed by the new Army Corps of Engineers dragline contract in Florida and higher deliveries at limestone operations.
• Depreciation Method Change -- Contract Mining adopted units of production depreciation for large equipment, adding approximately $900,000 to segment operating profit for the quarter.
• Mitigation Resources Expansion -- Acquired 958 acres in Wilson County, Tennessee, aiming to deliver mitigation credits by 2029 and doubling typical project service range.
• Capital Expenditures -- Capital expenditures totaled $33 million, mainly comprising the Tennessee land purchase and investment in draglines for Florida projects.
• Liquidity Position -- Outstanding debt stood at $126.4 million, with $102.7 million total liquidity, including $53.2 million in cash and $49.5 million in revolver availability.
• Segment Outlook -- Anticipated year-over-year operating profit and adjusted EBITDA growth in 2026 for both Utility Coal Mining (driven by increased per ton prices and lower costs) and Contract Mining (driven by new projects and continued 2025 momentum).

SUMMARY

NACCO Industries (NYSE:NC) outlined clear execution of its growth strategy, evidenced by substantial first-quarter profit expansion and business-line diversification. Management emphasized the utility coal segment as a continuing profit engine, while highlighting contract mining’s infrastructure growth and mitigation banking’s geographic expansion. Portfolio earnings diversification was underlined as Minerals & Royalties segment profit stabilized due to higher oil-related equity earnings offsetting lower natural gas revenues. The company’s aggressive capital deployment—across land, equipment, and project expansion—signals ongoing commitment to scaling all operating segments, supported by robust liquidity and moderating year-over-year growth rates projected for the second half.

• Management said, "this quarter, Mississippi Lignite Mining Company was one of the main drivers of our operating profit increase," explicitly attributing performance to this unit.
• Adjusted EBITDA and net income are both forecast to improve at the consolidated level for the full year, barring a one-time $6 million after-tax pension settlement from 2025 that affects comps.
• The Minerals & Royalties segment is expected to see declines in both operating profit and adjusted EBITDA for the full year due to reduced natural gas production and a changing production mix, even if oil prices remain higher.
• Capital allocation discipline remains, as management continues to target projects with full payback within five years—positions stated as integral to future growth and reinvestment.
• Contract Mining outlook is supported by new project commencements in Palm Beach County, Florida, and an expansion into Arizona, with phased dragline deployment expected to contribute to higher segment earnings over the course of the year.

INDUSTRY GLOSSARY

• Mitigation Credits: Certified units generated through environmental restoration or preservation projects, used to offset unavoidable ecological impacts from development projects, tradable within regulatory frameworks.
• Dragline: Large, electrically powered excavating equipment used in surface mining, enabling removal of overburden and extraction at open-pit mines or construction projects.
• Units of Production Depreciation: A method of depreciating asset value via actual usage or output, rather than the passage of time, to better reflect wear and tear on mining equipment.
• NIPRA Services: NACCO's internal services business specializing in dirt work and environmental reclamation, supporting both in-house mitigation projects and third-party clients.

Full Conference Call Transcript

Operator: Thank you for standing by. My name is Tina, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the NACCO Industries First Quarter 2026 Earnings Call. [Operator Instructions] It is now my pleasure to turn the call over to Christina Kmetko, Investor Relations. You may begin.

Christina Kmetko: Thank you. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for our 2026 first quarter earnings call. I'm Christina Kmetko, and I'm responsible for Investor Relations at NACCO. Joining me today are J.C. Butler, NACCO's President and CEO; and Elizabeth Loveman, our Senior Vice President and Controller. Yesterday, we released our first quarter results and filed our 10-Q with the SEC. Both documents are available on our website. During today's call, we will reference several non-GAAP measures, which we believe provide additional insight into how we manage our business. Reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP measures are also available on our website. Before we begin, let me remind you that today's remarks include forward-looking statements.

Actual results may differ materially from those indicated due to a variety of risks and uncertainties, which are described in our earnings release, 10-Q and other SEC filings. We undertake no obligation to update these statements. With that, I'll turn the call over to J.C. for his opening remarks. J.C.

John Butler: Thanks, Christy, and good morning, everyone. I'm pleased to say that we delivered a strong start to 2026, reporting significant growth and profitability. First quarter operating profit increased 43% over last year and 45% sequentially. Meaningful growth in our utility coal and contract mining segments drove the year-over-year improvement, while contract mining led the sequential growth, primarily due to the commencement of a new construction project in Florida. These operating results contributed to the 28% year-over-year and 15% sequential increases in adjusted EBITDA. These results reflect the business executing well and delivering as expected. Let me walk through each of our businesses in more detail. Our Utility Coal Mining segment remains the foundation of our business.

And this quarter, Mississippi Lignite Mining Company was one of the main drivers of our operating profit increase. During our year-end earnings call, I discussed the customers' power plant outage that began in mid-February. During the outage, we pivoted effectively and redeployed crews to work on planned reclamation activities. This reduced our asset retirement obligation rather than being recognized as an expense, which would have impacted first quarter earnings. Lower cost per ton helped minimize the effect of reduced deliveries in the first quarter. I'm confident that as long as the customers' power plant operates as planned, the team will continue to mine effectively and control costs, driving improvement in year-over-year results at Mississippi Lignite Mining Company.

Our Contract Mining segment is our primary growth platform for mining and its strong first quarter operating profit reflects the benefits of our strategic initiatives to expand this business. During the quarter, we commenced activities under a multiyear dragline services contract as part of a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers construction project in Palm Beach County, Florida. We are excited about this opportunity because it advances our growth in the large-scale infrastructure projects, and it showcases the efficiency and environmental advantages of our new electric drive MTech dragline. We have 2 MTech draglines on site and plan to add a third to this project later this year. We're encouraged by the early progress on this project.

In addition to the Florida project, we expect to commence operations during the second half of 2026 on the limestone quarry in Arizona, where we will be operating a dragline for an existing customer. This is a great opportunity that expands our footprint into a new region of the United States. Contract Mining continues to build a growing portfolio of long-term contracts through geographic and mineral expansion, which is expected to lead to increasing profitability in this segment. Turning to Minerals and Royalties. This segment reported comparable year-over-year operating profit. While first quarter results exceeded our forecast, we continue to expect year-over-year decrease in operating profit and segment adjusted EBITDA in 2026 despite higher oil prices.

Natural gas remains the primary driver of our near-term results, so higher oil prices certainly contribute to our results, but they do not have the same level of impact. That said, there's a lot of uncertainty in the oil and gas market, so we'll have to see how the situation in the Middle East plays out. At Mitigation Resources, we expect increasing profitability over time from the sale of mitigation credits and as reclamation and restoration services expand. While performance is currently variable due to permit and project timing, Mitigation Resources is expected to generate profit in the second half of 2026 and move toward more consistent results as the business expands.

In mid-April, Mitigation Resources acquired 958 acres in Wilson County, Tennessee, which is east of Nashville. This marks an important step in their growth strategy, representing significant expansion into an area experiencing steady economic growth. The project is expected to deliver a new mitigation bank with high-quality stream and wetland mitigation credits with availability anticipated in 2029. These credits will support continued residential, industrial and infrastructure development in the 14-county area around Greater Nashville. We are very excited about this project because it allows us to serve twice the typical service range for similar mitigation projects, and we will be serving an area that has experienced steady economic growth.

Across the board, we continue to invest in our businesses to drive future growth. We made capital expenditures of $33 million during the first quarter, and we anticipate making additional capital investments through the remainder of 2026, primarily in business development opportunities that meet our strict investment criteria. Overall, I continue to believe we are well positioned for meaningful growth. We entered 2026 with clear opportunities to build on our 2025 momentum, and we are executing. I remain confident in our businesses and our ability to deliver strong 2026 results as we continue to execute our growth strategies and create long-term value for our shareholders through long-term relationships, long-term contracts and investment in long-term assets.

With that, I'll turn the call over to Liz to provide a more detailed view of our financial results and outlook. Liz?

Elizabeth Loveman: Thank you, J.C. I'll start with some high-level comments about our consolidated first quarter 2026 results compared to the 2025 first quarter. We generated consolidated gross profit of $14.3 million, an increase of 48% year-over-year despite first quarter revenues of $62.8 million, decreasing 4%. Consolidated operating profit of $11 million increased from $7.7 million in 2025, driven by improvements in both our Utility Coal Mining and Contract Mining segments. These favorable results were partly offset by higher unallocated expenses. These strong operating profit results, combined with an improvement in other investment income, resulted in net income of $8.8 million or $1.17 per share.

This was an 80% increase over first quarter 2025 net income of $4.9 million or $0.66 per share. Consolidated adjusted EBITDA increased 28% to $16.4 million versus $12.8 million for the same period last year. Turning to the segments. The Utility Coal Mining segment reported operating profit of $7.4 million in 2026, a substantial increase over the $3.8 million generated in the 2025 first quarter. Segment adjusted EBITDA increased to $9.7 million from $5.8 million in the prior year. Efficiency actions and reclamation progress at Mississippi Lignite Mining Company during the power plant outage drove a meaningful improvement in gross profit compared with the prior year when results were affected by a $3 million inventory impairment charge.

Looking ahead, we expect a meaningful increase in operating profit compared with 2025, primarily in the first half of 2026. Improvements at Mississippi Lignite Mining Company driven by an increase in the contractually determined per ton sales price and a lower cost per ton delivered are expected to be partly offset by lower earnings at the unconsolidated mining operations. The lower unconsolidated mining earnings in the second half of 2026 are due to reduced income from the Sabine Mining Company associated with the wind-down of reclamation services. In the Contract Mining segment, current quarter results benefited from the commencement of the Army Corps of Engineers Dragline services contract J.C. discussed.

This contract, combined with increased customer requirements and deliveries at the Limestone mining operations led to a 32% increase in revenues net of reimbursed costs and substantial year-over-year increases in both operating profit and segment adjusted EBITDA. During the quarter, Contract Mining changed its depreciation method for draglines and other large mining equipment from straight line to units of production to better align depreciation with asset usage. This change contributed approximately $900,000 to first quarter operating profit. As activity increases, particularly with the Dragline services project in Florida and the commencement of operations in Arizona, depreciation expense will increase accordingly, and we expect full year depreciation to be generally in line with 2025.

Looking forward, as a result of earnings contributions from new contracts and continued momentum from 2025 activities, we anticipate a substantial year-over-year increase in both operating profit and segment adjusted EBITDA at the Contract Mining segment. In the Minerals & Royalties segment, higher first quarter 2026 earnings from our Eiger equity investment mostly offset lower natural gas revenues, reflecting the benefits of our diversified portfolio and resulting in comparable year-over-year operating profit.

For full year 2026, we expect the increases in income from our equity holding, combined with higher oil prices will be more than offset by anticipated production declines in our natural gas assets and a changing mix of production and development activity, resulting in an overall year-over-year decrease in Minerals and Royalties operating profit and segment adjusted EBITDA. At the consolidated level, we anticipate meaningful year-over-year improvements in consolidated operating profit, net income and adjusted EBITDA in 2026. Excluding the effect of a $6 million after-tax pension settlement charge in 2025, we expect year-over-year growth to moderate in the second half of the year as anticipated results are compared against stronger prior year operational performance. Looking at our liquidity.

At March 31, we had outstanding debt of $126.4 million, up from $100.9 million at December 31, 2025. Our total liquidity was $102.7 million, consisting of $53.2 million of cash and $49.5 million of availability under our revolving credit facility. As a result of the anticipated capital investments, we expect a greater use of cash before financing in 2026 compared with 2025. With that, I'll turn the call back to J.C. for closing remarks.

John Butler: Thanks, Liz. To wrap up, our first quarter 2026 results reflect continued execution of our business model and the strength of our operations. As we move forward, we plan to build on this momentum through additional investments in our growth platforms that are expected to deliver improvements in profitability and cash generation. I am encouraged by our performance and remain confident in our ability to generate long-term value for shareholders. We'll now turn to any questions you may have.

Operator: [Operator Instructions] And our first question comes from the line of Doug Weiss with DSW Investment.

Douglas Weiss: So congrats on the good quarter. I guess starting with Mississippi Lignite. It sounds like the plant maintenance has been completed and it's back to business as usual.

John Butler: Yes. Yes. The outage that occurred, the unplanned outage that occurred earlier in the year has been completed and the plant is actually running pretty well, which helps us because the best situation for us is to be mining at a steady rate so we can operate most efficiently. So that's a net positive.

Douglas Weiss: Right. Is that plant -- are you able to say whether that plant is now providing attractive returns to its owners given the evolution of electricity markets?

John Butler: We don't have a lot of exposure to the electricity side of that equation. So it would be -- I think it would be reckless for me to speculate on how exactly that's playing out right now. I mean generally, there's high demand for electrons that's supportive of prices. But you got to -- you'd have to work through the mechanics of the PPA that they have the power purchase agreement that they have with TVA in order to really figure out how that works. So, I just cannot -- private to those details.

Douglas Weiss: On the contract on the North American mining, so you've had a contract to start this quarter and then you have a couple more starting through the year. Last year, I guess, there was a big drop-off in the second half, and I think that was partly weather related. Would you anticipate a more a steady sort of cadence through this year and even growth through the year?

John Butler: Yes. I mean it's always subject to what could happen in the interim that would cause something to go directions we don't anticipate. But as we added, we're ramping up production at the new project in Palm Beach County, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers project. We've got one dragline operating and another one is just on -- it's either just been commissioned or will be shortly. Third dragline is going to be in there later in the year. So, we're going to see increasing levels of production there in support of that project, which is great. Then in the second half of the year, we're going to start operating the dragline in Arizona, which is great.

Those are the main 2 new contracts that we're layering on to our existing contracts this year.

Douglas Weiss: And then you had a large -- sorry, one other question on North American Mining. In terms of how you account for capital expenditure on that division, what is the sort of decision point on whether something gets expensed in the quarter as opposed to allocated to capital?

Elizabeth Loveman: Yes. I mean normal repairs and maintenance are expensed. If it's something that is going to benefit us over the long-term, like a dragline, rebuild on a dragline hub, those kinds of things that are expected to generate -- we're going to be able to use those over a longer period and they meet our capitalization criteria, we would capitalize those. So just general repairs and maintenance is expensed, other things are capitalized.

John Butler: Major component, I guess, is the way you can think of it. For a large dragline, the tub is the base that the dragline sits on. These things, the big ones walk, which is fascinating in technology, but it sits and rotates on a tub. Others are on very large tracks kind of like you've seen on a mobile crane or a bulldozer kind of thing, operates on track. So large components get capitalized, everything else gets expensed.

Elizabeth Loveman: If it's going to extend the useful life, it gets capitalized, I guess, is another way to it.

John Butler: Like if you take a boom down and do a complete boom rebuild, that probably gets capitalized.

Douglas Weiss: Then you had a large --

John Butler: Doug, just on that point. We talk about the fact that we pursue contracts that may -- not all contracts have capital upfront, but we do contracts that have initial capital upfront when we may put a dragline in place or mitigation resources, we're buying mineral interest or sorry, in Minerals and Royalties for buying mineral interest, mitigation resources we might buy land. But generally, the maintenance CapEx that we have in our projects going forward is a low number as a percentage of the original.

So I don't want you to think that any of these things that Liz was describing, tub repairs, boom rebuilds, I mean, they come up ever so often, but they're a small portion of the depreciation expense that we incur over the life of a contract.

Douglas Weiss: And in terms of Thacker Pass, I believe that's supposed to ramp next year. Any -- I think lithium prices have come up quite a bit. Anything you're seeing there that's worth updating on?

John Butler: I'm actually headed out there next week. The plant is progressing very nicely. We're doing initial work on mine development. We've got our office trailers established for the mine side will be, which is directly adjacent to the processing plant. I mean that project is moving along nicely. I look forward to being out there next week to see it. You're right, later this year, early next year is when we anticipate -- it's really late next year, and I'm off a year. It's late 2027 is when we anticipate making lithium deliveries to them, which they'll then be processing, but everything seems to be on target.

Elizabeth Loveman: And they do a very nice job of updating their website with what's going on. So if you wanted to look there, they have that update.

John Butler: They've done a great job giving the project updates.

Elizabeth Loveman: And I think they just filed their annual report today. So probably good information out there.

Douglas Weiss: Good. Yes, I'll check that out. Let's see. You had a large expenditure this quarter for mitigation resources. I think that's independent of your comments on buying land in Tennessee. What was the $32 million? What did that relate to?

John Butler: So our total CapEx for the quarter was $33 million, right, Christy? That was made up of the purchase of land in Tennessee and expenditures on the drag lines for the project in Florida that we just discussed, the Army Corps of Engineers project. That's really what makes up that $33 million. There are other things in there, too. That's not 100% of it, but it's certainly a majority of those expenditures are related to the land purchase for mitigation resources and the draglines for contract mining.

Douglas Weiss: I see. And when you make a large land purchase like that, what's the payoff in terms of time? When do you start to see cash realizations from that?

John Butler: I mean, the nature of our projects typically, there's always exceptions. But typically, we expect to get assets deployed pretty quickly and start generating cash returns. If you look at -- I'll give you one example in our minerals business, we, for the most part, look at projects that have payback -- complete payback within 5 years. And then these assets deliver for decades after that. So we always look at -- as we're measuring NPV and IRR on these projects, the speed with which you get your capital back is a big factor in all of this.

And of course, as we discuss internally all the time, the faster we can get our capital back means we have capital that we can then redeploy into other assets, other contracts, other opportunities that build on this long-term business model that we've described in our investor deck.

Elizabeth Loveman: And if you were asked about the Tennessee land, we had issued a press release when we acquired the land, and we noted that credits we anticipate will be available in 2029. There's a permitting that has to happen before the credits are available.

Douglas Weiss: I see. I see. When you buy an asset, like does that improve the utilization of your heavy equipment that you're using to improve that land?

John Butler: Yes. So within the Mitigation Resources business, when we started, we were just really doing the credits and contracting the dirt work. Very quickly, we realized that we should be doing our own dirt work because we can better control our costs and our schedule. And honestly, we're pretty good at what we do. So we established a business inside Mitigation Resources that we call NIPRA Services that does dirt work not only for Mitigation Resources own projects, but from time to time, we go identify -- that team identifies other restoration and reclamation projects that can be done for third parties. So we're able to utilize the equipment. And this is smaller equipment.

This is not like stuff that we would operate in big coal mines. This is smaller kind of things you can haul over the road. So we do not only our own work, we do work for third parties as well, which has turned out to be a really interesting business with a huge addressable market and I think a lot of opportunity.

Douglas Weiss: Great. I guess last question on the minerals business. So given the increase in oil prices and appreciating that there's a lot of volatility in those prices, do you -- are you getting any indications on whether that's going to lead to more wells over the rest of the year in terms of your partners or?

John Butler: Yes. I mean they, like everybody else, are watching what's going on with caution. Several years ago, we went through the period where all -- many of the producers were -- it's almost like an Internet business where it's all about the clicks. It was about how many rigs do they have going and how many wells we were drilling and not what was going on with their cash flows. And a bunch of them got burned by that.

So amongst the more sophisticated producers, which are primarily the folks that we work with, they're being cautious not to get out over their skis by taking on too much debt or bringing in private equity money that they need in order to fund a huge drilling program. Now I think that it's sustained. And look, I mean, I read the same stuff you probably read in the Wall Street Journal and other places. But if we have continued higher oil prices, they don't necessarily have to be at the level they are. Would that probably lead to future increases in development? It probably would.

But I think they're all waiting to see how this plays out and what really happens to oil prices over the long-term. My own view is if all of a sudden somebody waved a magic wand in the Middle East and everything was settled, which I don't think is going to happen, oil prices are going to drop because the immediate stress will come out of the system. Oil will begin flowing more regularly. But I think there's going to be a risk premium added to global oil prices for quite a while. And that's going to affect how people think about drilling in the Permian and other oil-producing regions in the United States.

Purely my opinion based on what I've been reading, but it feels like how it plays out. And ultimately, that should be good for the oil reserves that we own. I think ultimately, that spills over into natural gas to some extent, although we really haven't seen much movement in natural gas prices thus far, even though what's going on in the Middle East has disrupted LNG shipments. But my own opinion is, over time, this is a positive for U.S. LNG exports. And we're heavily weighted toward -- we're less heavily than we used to be, but we're still significantly weighted towards natural gas.

So ultimately, that should play into a really nice long-term benefit for our natural gas asset.

Douglas Weiss: Congrats on the good quarter.

John Butler: We'll talk to you next quarter. We appreciate your interest and your questions.

Operator: [Operator Instructions] And with no further questions in queue, I'll now hand the call back over to Christie for closing remarks.

Christina Kmetko: Okay. Thank you. We'll conclude our Q&A session. Before we wrap up the call, I'd like to provide a few reminders. A replay of our call will be available online later this morning. We will also post a transcript on our website when it becomes available. If you have any questions, please reach out to me. My phone number is on the press release. I hope you enjoy the rest of your day, and I'll turn it back to Tina to conclude the call. Thank you.

Operator: An audio recording of the event will be available via the Echo Replay platform. To access the platform by phone, please dial in using one of the numbers listed and input playback ID 1-6-1-0-2-0-3 followed by the pound key. The replay will expire on Wednesday, May 13th, 2026 at 11:59 p.m. Thank you very much for joining us today. This does conclude today's conference call. You may now disconnect.

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