Forestar Group Inc. (NYSE:FOR) Q4 2023 Earnings Conference Call November 7, 2023 5:00 PM ET

Company Participants

Ashley Dagley - Corporate Securities Council & IR

Daniel Bartok - CEO

James Allen - CFO

Mark Walker - COO

Conference Call Participants

Carl Reichardt - BTIG

Truman Patterson - Wolfe Research

Douglas Wardlaw - JPMorgan

Anthony Pettinari - Citigroup

Operator

Good afternoon, and welcome to Forestar's Fourth Quarter and Fiscal 2023 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note, this conference is being recorded.

I will now turn the call over to Ashley Dagley, Corporate Securities Council for Forestar.

Ashley Dagley

Thank you, John. Good afternoon, and welcome to the call to discuss Forestar's fourth quarter and fiscal 2023 results. Thank you for joining us.

Before we get started, today's call includes forward-looking statements as defined by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Although Forestar believes any such statements are based on reasonable assumptions, there is no assurance that actual outcomes will not be materially different. All forward-looking statements are based upon information available to Forestar on the date of this conference call and we do not undertake any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements publicly.

Additional information about factors that could lead to material changes in performance is contained in Forestar's annual report on Form 10-K and its most recent quarterly report on Form 10-Q, both of which are filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Our earnings release is on our website at investor.forestar.com, and we plan to file our 10-K late next week. After this call, we will post an updated investor presentation to our Investor Relations site under Events and Presentations for your reference.

Now I will turn the call over to Dan Bartok, our CEO.

Daniel Bartok

Thanks, Ashley. We appreciate you filling in for Katie this quarter. Good afternoon, everyone. As always, we appreciate your interest in Forestar and taking the time to discuss our fourth quarter and fiscal year results. I'm pleased to also be joined on the call today by Jim Allen, our Chief Financial Officer; and Mark Walker, our Chief Operating Officer.

The Forestar team finished the year strong, highlighted by net income increasing 43% from the prior year quarter to $72.4 million or $1.44 per diluted share. Pre-tax income in the fourth quarter increased 44% to $95.4 million, and our pre-tax profit margin was 17.4%. Revenues for the quarter increased 44% to $549.7 million, while lots sold increased 27% to 4,986. While our fourth quarter performance was substantially stronger than a year ago, the first half of fiscal 2023 was challenging.