Murphy USA Inc. Reports Third Quarter 2021 Results

Murphy USA Inc. (NYSE: MUSA), a leading marketer of retail motor fuel products and convenience merchandise, today announced financial results for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2021.

Key Highlights:

• Net income was $104.0 million, or $3.98 per diluted share, in Q3 2021 compared to net income of $66.9 million, or $2.27 per diluted share, in Q3 2020

• Total fuel contribution (retail fuel margin plus product supply and wholesale ("PS&W") results including RINs) for Q3 2021 was 26.6 cpg, compared to 22.3 cpg in Q3 2020

• Total retail gallons increased 11.4% in Q3 2021 compared to Q3 2020, while volumes on a same store sales ("SSS") basis increased 1.9%

• Merchandise contribution dollars increased 58.6% to $187.3 million compared to the prior-year quarter, on average unit margins of 19.6% in the current quarter, primarily attributable to the QuickChek acquisition

• Food and beverage contribution margin increased significantly to 14.8% of total merchandise contribution dollars in Q3 2021 compared to 0.9% in the prior year period due to the inclusion of QuickChek in the current period

• During Q3 2021, the Company opened 4 new Murphy Express stores and 3 QuickChek stores. There are 16 new Murphy Express sites, 3 new QuickChek sites, and 12 raze-and-rebuild Murphy USA sites currently under construction

• Common shares repurchased during Q3 2021 were approximately 0.2 million for $33.2 million at an average price of $153.95 per share

• The Company also announced a quarterly cash dividend of $0.29 per Common share, $1.16 on an annualized basis, payable on December 1, 2021 based on a record date of November 8, 2021

“Despite continued supply chain constraints and operational hurdles, Murphy USA’s exceptional third-quarter performance demonstrates our ability to compete and win in a challenging environment," said President and CEO Andrew Clyde. “We grew both fuel volumes and margins versus the prior year, expanded same-store merchandise contribution, and introduced targeted investments in labor to support our employees and help maintain our high standards of customer service. Our outlook for the business remains robust and we expect to generate strong free cash which will enable continued organic growth and shareholder distributions, including share repurchase, and as announced this afternoon, an increase in our quarterly dividend to $0.29 per share from $0.25 per share."

Consolidated Results

Net income and Adjusted EBITDA for Q3 2021 were higher versus the prior period, primarily due to higher all-in fuel contribution, higher merchandise margin contribution, and lower general and administrative expense, partially offset by higher store operating expenses and higher payment fees. Net income was further impacted by higher current-quarter interest, depreciation, and income tax expense. All amounts reported for the quarter and year-to-date 2021 periods include the consolidated results of our wholly-owned subsidiary, Quick Chek Corporation ("QuickChek") from January 29, 2021.

Fuel

Total fuel contribution dollars increased 33.3%, or $73.1 million, in Q3 of 2021 compared to Q3 of 2020. Retail fuel margins in the current period increased to 24.0 cpg, or 26.3% above the prior period despite a rising fuel price environment. Consequently, total retail fuel contribution dollars of $264.4 million increased 40.9% compared to the prior-year quarter, supported by both higher retail fuel margins and volumes. PS&W margin (including RINs) decreased by $3.6 million when compared to Q3 2020 primarily due to negative spot-to-rack margins which were only partially offset by higher RIN prices. In addition, typical timing and price-related impacts of the product supply chain accounted for the remainder of the difference.

Merchandise

Total merchandise contribution increased 58.6% to $187.3 million in Q3 2021 from $118.1 million in the prior year quarter due primarily to the inclusion of QuickChek. Food and beverage contribution, a subset of non-tobacco, experienced a significant increase to 14.8% of the total merchandise contribution primarily due to QuickChek's established prepared food offering.

Other Areas

Store OPEX excluding payment fees and rent were $55.1 million higher versus the year-ago period, primarily attributable to the addition of QuickChek. While QuickChek locations have higher per store operating costs due to the larger format and enhanced food offering, the MUSA network also experienced higher operating expenses, primarily due to higher employee-related expenses and higher maintenance costs, combined with more stores in the network. Total SG&A costs were $6.5 million lower than the year-ago period, primarily due to a charitable donation of $10 million in the prior year period, which was partially offset by the inclusion of QuickChek in third quarter 2021 results.

Store Openings

The Company opened 7 new-to-industry retail locations in Q3 2021, bringing the network total to 1,669. This total consists of 1,151 Murphy USA stores, 360 Murphy Express stores, and 158 QuickChek stores. There are a total of 31 stores currently under construction, including 16 new 2,800 sq. foot Murphy Express stores, 3 QuickChek stores, and 12 raze-and-rebuilds.

Financial Resources

Cash balances as of September 30, 2021 totaled $301.3 million. Long-term debt consisted of approximately $493 million in carrying value of 3.75% senior notes due in 2031, $494 million in carrying value of 4.75% senior notes due in 2029, $297 million in carrying value of 5.625% senior notes due in 2027 and $385 million of term debt. In addition, the Company has approximately $130 million in long-term capital leases. The cash flow revolving facility remained undrawn as of September 30, 2021.

At September 30, 2021, the Company had common shares outstanding of 25,633,198. Common shares repurchased under the $500 million share repurchase program approved in November 2020 were approximately 0.2 million shares for $33.2 million in the current quarter. Common shares purchased for the nine months ended September 30, 2021, were 1.7 million shares for a total of $231.5 million, approximately $143.6 million remains in the share repurchase plan at September 30, 2021.

The effective income tax rate for Q3 2021 was 24.5% compared to 24.1% in Q3 2020.

The Company paid a quarterly dividend of $0.25 per share, or $1.00 per share on an annualized basis, on September 9, 2021, for a total cash payment of $6.4 million.

Today, the Company also announced a quarterly cash dividend of $0.29 per Common share, or $1.16 per share on an annualized basis. This dividend is payable on December 1, 2021 to all shareholders of record as of November 8, 2021.

Earnings Call Information

The Company will host a conference call on October 28, 2021 at 10:00 a.m. Central Time to discuss third quarter 2021 results. The conference call number is 1 (833) 968-2218 and the conference number is 8602898. The earnings and investor related materials, including reconciliations of any non-GAAP financial measures to GAAP financial measures and any other applicable disclosures, will be available on that same day on the investor section of the Murphy USA website (http://ir.corporate.murphyusa.com). Approximately one hour after the conclusion of the conference, the webcast will be available for replay. Shortly thereafter, a transcript will be available.

Source: Murphy USA Inc. (NYSE: MUSA)

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements in this news release contain or may suggest “forward-looking” information (as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995) that involve risk and uncertainties, including, but not limited to our M&A activity, anticipated store openings, fuel margins, merchandise margins, sales of RINs, trends in our operations, dividends, and share repurchases. Such statements are based upon the current beliefs and expectations of the Company’s management and are subject to significant risks and uncertainties. Actual future results may differ materially from historical results or current expectations depending upon factors including, but not limited to: The Company's ability to realize projected synergies from the acquisition of QuickChek and successfully expand our food and beverage offerings; our ability to continue to maintain a good business relationship with Walmart; successful execution of our growth strategy, including our ability to realize the anticipated benefits from such growth initiatives, and the timely completion of construction associated with our newly planned stores which may be impacted by the financial health of third parties; our ability to effectively manage our inventory, disruptions in our supply chain and our ability to control costs; the impact of severe weather events, such as hurricanes, floods and earthquakes; the impact of a global health pandemic, such as COVID-19, including the impact on the Company's fuel volumes if the gradual recoveries experienced throughout 2020 and 2021 stall or reverse as a result of any resurgence in COVID-19 infection rates and government reaction in response thereof; the impact of any systems failures, cybersecurity and/or security breaches of the company or its vendor partners, including any security breach that results in theft, transfer or unauthorized disclosure of customer, employee or company information or our compliance with information security and privacy laws and regulations in the event of such an incident; successful execution of our information technology strategy; reduced demand for our products due to the implementation of more stringent fuel economy and greenhouse gas reduction requirements, or increasingly widespread adoption of electric vehicle technology; future tobacco or e-cigarette legislation and any other efforts that make purchasing tobacco products more costly or difficult could hurt our revenues and impact gross margins; changes to the Company's capital allocation, including the timing, declaration, amount and payment of any future dividends or levels of the Company's share repurchases, or management of operating cash; the market price of the Company's stock prevailing from time to time, the nature of other investment opportunities presented to the Company from time to time, the Company's cash flows from operations, and general economic conditions; compliance with debt covenants; availability and cost of credit; and changes in interest rates. Our SEC reports, including our most recent annual Report on Form10-K and quarterly report on Form 10-Q, contain other information on these and other factors that could affect our financial results and cause actual results to differ materially from any forward-looking information we may provide. The Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events, new information or future circumstances.

Notes

Average Per Store Month (APSM) metric includes all stores open through the date of the calculation, including stores acquired during the period.

Same store sales (SSS) metric includes aggregated individual store results for all stores open throughout both periods presented. For all periods presented, the store must have been open for the entire calendar year to be included in the comparison. Remodeled stores that remained open or were closed for just a very brief time (less than a month) during the period being compared remain in the same store sales calculation. If a store is replaced either at the same location (raze-and-rebuild) or relocated to a new location, it will be excluded from the calculation during the period it is out of service. Newly constructed stores do not enter the calculation until they are open for each full calendar year for the periods being compared (open by January 1, 2020 for the stores being compared in the 2021 versus 2020 comparison). Acquired stores are not included in the calculation of same store sales for the first 12 months after the acquisition. When prior period same store sales volumes or sales are presented, they have not been revised for current year activity for raze-and-rebuilds and asset dispositions.

QuickChek uses a weekly retail calendar where each quarter has 13 weeks and its historical fiscal year end was the Friday nearest to October 31. For the Q3 2021 period, the QuickChek results cover the period from July 3, 2021 to October 1, 2021. For the year-to-date period, the QuickChek results cover the period from January 29, 2021 (the date of acquisition) to October 1, 2021. The difference in timing of the month ends is immaterial to the overall consolidated results.

Supplemental Disclosure Regarding Non-GAAP Financial Information

The following table sets forth the Company’s EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2021 and 2020. EBITDA means net income (loss) plus net interest expense, plus income tax expense, depreciation and amortization, and Adjusted EBITDA adds back (i) other non-cash items (e.g., impairment of properties and accretion of asset retirement obligations) and (ii) other items that management does not consider to be meaningful in assessing our operating performance (e.g., (income) from discontinued operations, net settlement proceeds, (gain) loss on sale of assets, loss on early debt extinguishment, transaction and integration costs related to acquisitions, and other non-operating (income) expense). EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA are not measures that are prepared in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP).

We use Adjusted EBITDA in our operational and financial decision-making, believing that the measure is useful to eliminate certain items in order to focus on what we deem to be a more reliable indicator of ongoing operating performance and our ability to generate cash flow from operations. Adjusted EBITDA is also used by many of our investors, research analysts, investment bankers, and lenders to assess our operating performance. We believe that the presentation of Adjusted EBITDA provides useful information to investors because it allows understanding of a key measure that we evaluate internally when making operating and strategic decisions, preparing our annual plan, and evaluating our overall performance. However, non-GAAP measures are not a substitute for GAAP disclosures, and EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA may be prepared differently by us than by other companies using similarly titled non-GAAP measures.

The reconciliation of net income (loss) to EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA is as follows:

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"Our outlook for the business remains robust and we expect to generate strong free cash which will enable continued organic growth and shareholder distributions, including share repurchase and an increase in our quarterly dividend to $0.29 per share."