United Rentals last week announced $732 million in total revenue for the first quarter of 2005, a 13.5 percent year-over-year increase. Although the company will not finalize its first quarter results until it reports its final 2004 results, it did release preliminary information.
United said same-store rental revenues increased 9.9 percent year over year and rental rates for the general rentals segment jumped 9.7 percent compared with the first quarter of 2004. Dollar utilization was 53.6 percent, a 4.0 year-over-year increase.
Cash flow from operations for the quarter was $149 million and free cash flow was $45 million, compared with cash flow from operations of $203 million and free cash flow of $87 million in Q104. The decrease was attributable to less cash generated from working capital, the company said.
First-quarter revenues for general rentals were $688 million, a 14.7-percent increase from $599 million in the first quarter last year. Rental revenues in general rentals jumped 11.1 percent year over year.
In the traffic control segment, first-quarter revenues dropped 3.2 percent, from $45.4 million to $43.9 million, while same-store rental revenue decreased 2.8 percent year over year.
“Our strong first-quarter performance reflects the significant growth we achieved in our general rentals segment, where revenues grew 14.7 percent and same-store rental revenues were up 11.1 percent,” said CEO Wayland Hicks. “The primary driver of this growth was the success of our ongoing rates initiative, which enabled us to improve pricing without impacting customer demand. We also increased our contractor supplies sales 41 percent in the quarter and opened three additional distribution centers to support future expansion.
“For the full-year 2005, we anticipate total revenues of $3.4 billion, diluted earnings per share of $1.60 to $1.70 and free cash flow of at least $200 million. We expect to drive general rentals growth by improving rental rates of at least 5 percent over last year, expanding our rental fleet, increasing contractor supplies sales by more than 30 percent and opening new branches. We’ve opened 10 new branches this year and plan to open a total of 30 to 35 by years end. We are continuing to see improvement in our principal end market, private non-residential construction, where first quarter spending rose 7 percent year-over-year according to the Department of Commerce data. This improvement supports the strategic investments we are making to drive future growth.”
In other United news, the company last week announced the opening of its fifth contractor supplies distribution center, in Grand Prairie, Texas. The 50,400-square-foot facility will fulfill customer orders placed through more than 50 locations in Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas and Oklahoma. “We now have an ideal hub from which to service our branches in the Gulf region,” said United’s director-logistics and distribution Peter Hofbauer.
Based in Greenwich, Conn., United Rentals is No. 1 on the RER 100.
