Preston Feight: year 2025 results, as well as other business highlights. PACCAR's fourth quarter revenues were $6.8 billion, and net income was $557 million. In 2025, PACCAR achieved annual revenues of $28.4 an increasing percentage of the overall business and contribute to PACCAR's structurally stronger performance. 2025 was a dynamic year in the North American truck industry with soft freight markets, tariffs, and emissions policy uncertainties. In this environment, Kenworth and Peterbilt made strong contributions to PACCAR's results. Importantly, we ended last year with tariff and emissions clarity. The Section 232 truck tariff policy that became effective on November 1st provides advantages to PACCAR, who produces trucks in the United States, Canada, and Mexico for each local market. I'm proud of PACCAR's excellent team who have created this cost-effective, flexible, and robust manufacturing strategy. In late 2025, It was confirmed that the 35 milligram EPA 27 NOx limit will go into effect in January of next year. This brings clarity to the market and helps customers make their buying decisions. PACCAR is wonderfully positioned for these changes with the newest lineup of trucks and engines that are the most efficient and highest quality in the industry. Last year, US and Canadian Class A truck retail sales were 233,000 units. and Kenworth and Peterbilt delivered a market share of 30%. The U.S. economy is projected to expand this year. The less than truckload and vocational truck sector, where Peterbilt and Kenworth are the market leaders, are steady. The truckload segment is beginning to accelerate, with industry customer demand and spot rates picking up in December. The 2026 U.S. and Canadian Class A truck market is forecast to be in a range of 230 to 270,000 vehicles, as economic growth, regulatory and tariff clarity, and improving freight conditions are poised to improve customer demand. In Europe, DOF trucks have a competitive advantage in the market with their innovative aerodynamic design that features the largest and most luxurious cab interior and the best powertrain choices. In recognition of this, the DOF team earned the prestigious International Truck of the Year Award for the DOF XF and XD electric trucks, It's noteworthy that this is the third time in five years that DOF has won this award. In 2025, the European above 16 ton truck market was 298,000 units. This year, the European economy is forecast to grow modestly, and we expect the above 16 ton truck market to be in the range of 280 to 320,000 registrations. In addition to the excellent businesses in Europe and Brazil, DOF is also expanding in the Andean region of South America. Last year, the South American above 16-ton market was 115,000 vehicles and is expected to be in the range of 100,000 to 110,000 trucks this year. Other 2025 business highlights included PACCAR earning the Elite A rating from Climate Disclosure Project for its environmental performance, DOF being honored as the Fleet Truck of the Year in the UK, DOF Kenworth and Peterbilt introducing the next generation of battery electric trucks, Packard completing a new engine remanufacturing facility in Mississippi, and Kenworth completing a new chassis paint facility in Ohio. Packard delivered 32,900 trucks in the fourth quarter, and deliveries are forecast to be at a comparable level in the first quarter of 2026. Fourth quarter truck parts and other gross margins were 12%, and we estimate that first quarter gross margins will increase to 12.5% to 13%. We look forward to 2026 being a year of accelerated growth for our customers, dealers, and PACCAR. Kevin Behney will now provide an update on PACCAR parts, financial services, as well as other business highlights.
Kevin Behney: Kevin? Thank you, Preston. In 2025, PACCAR declared dividends of $2.72 per share, including a year-end dividend of $1.40 per share. This resulted in a dividend yield of nearly 3%. PACCAR has paid a dividend for a significant 84 consecutive years. Last year, PACCAR parts annual revenues increased by 3% to a record $6.9 billion, and pre-tax profits were a strong $1.67 billion. Fourth quarter revenues increased 4% to a record $1.7 billion, with pre-tax profits of $415 million. Pack Our Parts performance reflects the benefits of investments in connectivity and agentic AI that increase vehicle uptime and enhance the success of our customers. Pack Our Parts is continuing to expand and now has 21 distribution centers worldwide, including a new distribution center in Calgary. This new PDC enhances parts availability and delivery times to Canadian dealers and customers. Parts aftermarket parts business provides strong profitability through all phases of the business cycle. We estimate part sales to grow by 4% to 8% this year, with growth accelerating as the year progresses. Last year, PACCAR Financial Services achieved record annual revenues of $2.2 billion, and annual pre-tax income grew 11% to $485 million. Fourth quarter revenues were a record $569 million, and quarterly pre-tax income grew 10% to $115 million. PACCAR Financial provides the highest quality service in the market and makes it easy for customers to do business with PACCAR through the use of technology and the credit application and loan servicing process. PACCAR Financial increased market share to 27%, a growth of two percentage points when compared to 2024. Capital project investments last year were $728 million, while research and development investments were $446 million. This year, we're planning capital investments in the range of $725 to $775 million, and R&D expenses in the range of $450 to $500 million. This year's investments on key technology and innovation projects include the creation of next generation clean diesel, hybrid and alternative power trains, battery cells, integrated connected vehicle services, flexible manufacturing capabilities, PACCAR's autonomous vehicle platform, and advanced driver assistance systems. PACCAR's independent Kenworth, Peterbilt, and Doff dealers consistently invest in their businesses enhancing our industry-leading distribution network, and they make a significant contribution to PACCAR's long-term success. PACCAR is looking forward to a great year in 2026. Thank you. We'd be pleased to answer your questions.
Operator: Thank you. If you would like to ask a question, please press star followed by 1 on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, please press star followed by 2. When preparing to ask your question, please ensure your device is unmuted locally. First question comes from David Grasso with Evercore ISI. Your line is open, please go ahead.
spk16: Hi, thank you for the time. I was just curious, can you walk us through the margin improvement you expect from 4Q to 1Q despite the flat deliveries?
Preston Feight: 4Q to 1Q, the thinking is, David, is a lot to unpack there, but one of the things you look at in fourth quarter, is we had the 232 go into effect. Obviously that went into effect November 1st, so in a month we had higher tariffs. So that happened in there. The other thing that was significant is our manufacturing teams in the fourth quarter did a really great job of being able to convert the factories over to build trucks local for local. So for example, Chillicothe and Denton are now building the medium duty trucks. And in Canada, we're able to build all of the product lines principally for Canada. So that was a lot of adjustment in schedules during the fourth quarter, which had some impact on margins. And as we look forward, we get a full quarter in quarter one of margins that are benefiting from the 232 tariff. There's the clarity of NOx 27, which happened. So I think that's starting to have some improvement. Order intake has been very good, very strong in December and through January. So we're seeing some uptick in terms of customer demand, which is good for our business as well. And that's what's driving up the margin 12.5% to 13% in Q1 compared to the 12% in Q4.
spk16: And that last point about orders, I would have thought maybe the build sequentially could be up. What's the translation from those orders into when you expect to produce those trucks?
Preston Feight: Yeah, I mean, I think you know the cadence of it is a lot of orders at the end of the year come in as fleets that are spread delivery throughout the year. So that's a little bit of what I think everybody saw in the fourth quarter. And then what we're seeing now is a little bit more close in terms of order intake, but it's allowing us to build up our backlog a little bit, increase visibility a little bit, and then that's what's going to translate into higher build in the outer quarters.
spk16: And lastly, to quantify a little bit 4Q to 1Q, can you give us some sense of the price-cost dynamic in truck in the fourth quarter and
Preston Feight: how to frame it with the section 232 benefits for one queue yeah i think you can you can see favorability coming in q1 compared to q4 in price cost most significantly is cost reductions that we would expect to see and again doing that comparison of the work our factories did that has some cost impact in the fourth quarter in terms of getting the right trucks in the right places And then again, we get the benefit of 232 in Q1, so it gets a lot more stable in that for a net positive price cost on truck. Bryce, you had something?
spk05: Yeah, we also had a higher level of overtime in the fourth quarter because of the events that Preston spoke to and getting all the trucks out at the end of the year. Our employees did a fantastic job getting all the trucks out that our customers so desperately want to have, so we felt really good about that. That should not be recurring in the first quarter either.
Preston Feight: All right, thank you for the time. Yeah. Thanks, David. Have a good day.
Operator: We now turn to Jerry Revich with Wells Fargo. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
spk17: Hi, good morning and good afternoon, everyone. And Kevin, congratulations.
spk00: Thank you, Jerry.
spk17: I'm wondering if you could just talk about what you're seeing in the performance of your aftermarket business in January by region. It feels like there's an uptick in Europe in particular that's playing out, but I'm wondering if you could just provide the context. You just provided on orders for aftermarket Europe and US, please.
Kevin Behney: Yeah, sure, Jerry. So forecast for Q1 is 3% growth year over year. Team did a great job, let's say, in a soft parts market with record sales growth for last year and definitely for the fourth quarter. And what we are seeing is soft part market customers really are focused on required maintenance. And so we saw a mixed shift towards that. We've got great AI agentic tools to help identify that and not only get that mixed shift in our distribution centers, but also out with the dealers. And so we've got a forecast of 4% to 8% growth for this year. And we'll see that You know, definitely as we see the truck side accelerate through the year, we'll see that on the part side as well.
spk17: Super. And then in Europe specifically?
Kevin Behney: Yeah, that's what I was about to say. And then just the split in region is, I think it'll be consistent in North America as well as Europe.
spk17: Very interesting. Thank you for the color. And then can we just double click on Europe a little bit? So production was really high in the quarter versus normal seasonality, and you took up your outlook for Europe. Can you just expand on what you're seeing in terms of, is it a particular set of countries that are driving the demand acceleration for you folks in Europe, or how broad is the activity improvement?
Kevin Behney: Yeah, the market finished it at, they'll focus on heavy duty at 297,000, and so relatively strong market for Europe. No specific focus on any given region. Obviously, you know, depending on where you are in Europe, some markets are stronger than others. You know, we continue to focus on premium trucks. You know, Preston said we've recognized as Fleet Truck of the Year in the UK, International Truck of the Year for the DOF XF and XD. And so we just, you know, we took the market up because we see, you know, similar strong market this year as well.
spk17: And lastly, can I ask, on Section 232, as that starts to impact your competitors, how are you thinking about market share versus unit profitability from a PACCAR standpoint? As we look back historically, you folks have targeted improving unit profitability cycle over cycle. And so as we're thinking about the benefits from the rebate program, as well as chatter out there for $9,000 type price increases. Can you just provide a packer perspective on where you see a unit profitability going and how you folks are thinking about a market share versus a profitability given a section two 32, even the playing field for you folks.
Preston Feight: Yeah, I think, you know, you, you, the last statement you made is really instructive because throughout 2025, there was a bit of a disadvantage. And now I think we anticipate that to be an advantage. It doesn't come through quickly, right? It's competitive world out there. So in the first quarter, Many of our competitors haven't taken that to the market yet, those tariff costs to the market yet, which keeps things in a bit of a very competitive state, maintains that dynamic nature we were talking about in our commentary. But through the year, we feel good about our opportunity to gain in terms of margin and market share as the year progresses and things stabilize out. Because it does seem stable now, and because our teams have done such a good job getting the local for local manufacturing, it really should be an opportunity for us in both categories
spk17: Thank you.
Preston Feight: You bet.
Operator: We now turn to Robert Wertheimer with Malleus Research. Your line is open. Please go ahead. Robert, your line is open.
spk15: I'm so sorry. Just following up on Jerry. Rob Leibowitz, The cycle margins and where you're kind of competitive and production position sits in North America now versus in the past. Rob Leibowitz, Is there any reason to think is things normalized over the next year or two or three that your your truck margin should be you know anything different from average you know whether higher or lower and I have one follow up Thank you.
Preston Feight: Rob Leibowitz, You know I would say rob the predicting out 123 years. in the operating environment we're in is a little bit challenging in terms of what things are going to look like. There's a USMCA negotiation that's going to take place probably later this year, so it'll be instructive to look at that. So I think that could have an impact on how margins feel. What I think we're focused on is making sure that the trucks we're providing have the greatest value to our customers. And to that end, as you know, we have the newest lineup of trucks out there. And one of the things that we're now focusing on is how we're going to be able to help our customers be more profitable through the use of the agentic AI that Kevin mentioned but also maybe more generally in connected truck data. So our ability to have connected every truck be connected and gather like penta bytes of data from our trucks and then use that data to provide customer value is significant in the coming years. So that's what we can control and that's where our focus is. It's high quality trucks, lowest cost of ownership, highest reliability, and new transportation solutions for our customers to help them be more successful.
spk15: Interesting. I look forward to hearing more about that. And then just a quick one. Did you mention your European market share for the year?
Kevin Behney: I hadn't yet, Rob, but it was 13.5% on the heavy-duty side.
spk15: Perfect. I'll have a bunch of questions for you shortly, and thank you very much.
Preston Feight: Thank you. Thank you. Look forward to sharing more with you.
Operator: We now turn to Stephen Fisher with UBS. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
spk05: Great, thanks.
spk02: Good morning. Just wanted to confirm some of the production dynamics in the quarter. The 15,000 in U.S. and Canada, I thought I heard you say that maybe that was affected by sort of shifting local for local. How much of, I guess, was the 15,000 less than what you expected? How did that compare? How much of that, if you could break it out, was
Preston Feight: tied to sort of shifting that the production plans around or was there anything else going on in the quarter yeah i think it's not what we expected yeah we can can you hear us okay yep sure thank you yeah so that 15 000 is kind of right where we thought it would be right in the range of where we thought it would be um europe probably um Delivered a few more, maybe North America a little less, but what we really saw is a cadence change through the quarter and a cadence change continuing through the first quarter of stronger order intake, the ability for the truck plans, as we mentioned. I'm so proud of them. But for them to be able to keep the build going while they were doing this transition of build was really impressive. So if there was anything, a few hundred units might have been varied in there where they were working through bringing in trucks out of Mexico, bringing in trucks out of Canada. and bringing that flexibility, and then the team in Canada flexing into a wide variety of model mixes built in St. T, there's some inefficiencies in that. But their ability to manage that was significant and really impressive. And so I don't think we're too surprised at all by it. What we feel good about is the stability we have going forward and how that's going to be helpful to the build cadence through the 2026 calendar year.
spk02: OK, that's helpful. And then I guess translating that into then the first quarter flat. Can you just give us sort of the regional color there directionally for U.S. and U.S. Canada versus Europe?
Preston Feight: Yeah, we see U.S. Canada up some and then Europe down a little bit as it higher deliveries in the fourth quarter at year end in Europe. Okay. Thank you very much.
spk02: You bet.
Operator: We now turn to Angel Castillo with Morgan Stanley. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
spk00: Thanks for taking my question. Just wanted to unpack a little bit more on the order uptick. You noted the continuation of maybe some of that into January. We saw a strong December order data. Can you just expand on maybe the shape of the strength in January and just maybe any details on what percentage of the order book or order slots are now filled for kind of 1Q and 2Q? And then maybe just related to that, like if you could expand on just You know, the areas where you're seeing the uptick in orders, is there any kind of particular pockets, whether it's vocational or is it, you know, more related to EPA pre-buy? Like, what are you hearing in terms of, you know, the strength in those orders?
Preston Feight: Yeah, I think as you articulated the numbers for December, you know those order intakes. I'd say January continued in that same level of cadence of significant over-billed rate order intake. Some spread delivery in there, as you talked about, fleets that are kind of putting in their buying decisions. But also some things that are closer in, as you mentioned, vocational. And we're seeing some significant orders from bodybuilders coming into our mix now so they can replenish their inventory for 2026. And then a steadiness in the LTL market. So it's kind of a mixture. You articulated that well. And that's what we see. So strong order intake kind of across the board, which is helping us grow those backlogs, which is going to be positive for the year. And then I would say in Q1, we're mostly full. And then, as you know, we'll look at Q2 as we get to the next earnings call.
spk00: That's very helpful. Thank you. And then maybe just along those lines on the North America truck outlook for the year, I guess U.S. and Canada, can you just expand a little bit? So you raised Europe and South America, but it sounds like the level of orders here is pretty robust, but you kept the North America unit outlook unchanged. How should we read that? Is there any nuances to what you're seeing, maybe whether it's market share shifts or that this positions you maybe better for the industry, better for the top end of the range we have provided? How should we kind of take that into context given the unchanged guide for the industry?
Preston Feight: Well, I think that the truth is our unchanged is higher than maybe like ACT was previously. So we felt good about 2026. We still feel good about 2026. And so there's really no change from our positive sense of what's going to come through the year and the fact that it's going to be a year of acceleration for us. And acceleration sequentially is what we'd expect to see through the year.
spk00: Very helpful. Thank you.
Operator: You bet. Our next question comes from Scott Group with Wolf Research. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
spk13: Hey, thanks. So when truck rates start moving higher We tend to see more truck orders. It feels like some of the reason why truck rates are going higher right now is that there's fewer drivers and the government's focused on non-domicile and things like that. If this is more of a supply-driven cycle with fewer drivers, how do you think about what that means for truck orders and this cycle going forward?
Preston Feight: I think it's a great point, Scott. Obviously, you're dialed in on what's going on there. But if there are fewer drivers that maybe aren't meeting the legal requirements, those drivers probably are working on the lower side of the contract rates and the spot rate businesses. And then what you see is those more established carriers tend to have probably somewhat higher rates. The fact that there's fewer that low side drivers enables them to probably command a better rate positioning. I think there's some of that going on right now. Obviously, as they get better rate positioning, their profitability will hopefully improve. and then that will drive their ability to have better cash flow and purchase more trucks.
spk13: And then similar question, when you, this order pick up, do you have a sense, is this more replacement or is there any growth? And if it is sort of more replacement, I don't know, just thoughts on how you see the used truck market evolving over the course of the year.
Preston Feight: Yeah, I think in the used truck space, it's kind of interesting kind of read through to me is, We think that as the year goes on, used trucks can become more valuable simply because of how things are shaping out in the marketplace, even in the next year. So it should be positive. Right now, there's been a little bit of a downtick in used trucks because some of those buyers might be the people that are being affected by the CDL enforcement rules. And those might have been the buyers for the used trucks. So there's a temporary moment there. And also, I think we've still seen the finishing up of rationalization of fleets that were going to be in the business and make it through this cycle versus those that are leaving the business. So all of that kind of put in, you would expect to see the number of delinquencies diminish as the year progresses, as fleet profitabilities come up, and then use truck pricing follow that.
spk13: And just so I understand, your point about use being more valuable, is that a sort of comment around EPA 27 and big increases in New truck prices coming next year?
Preston Feight: Exactly. Yeah, that's part of it.
Kevin Behney: Yeah, we saw a 4% increase in used truck values year over year, and we expect that to continue to increase for that reason.
spk13: Thank you, guys. Appreciate it.
Kevin Behney: You bet. Take care.
Operator: We now turn to Chad Dellard with Bernstein. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
spk08: Hey, good morning, guys. I want to spend some time on parts gross margin. So first of all, fourth quarter, what was it? And then how do you think about that scaling in 26 as that business reaccelerates?
Kevin Behney: Yeah, Chad, this is Kevin. So fourth quarter was 29.5. And as I mentioned, you know, in a soft parts market, I'd say, you know, that's pretty good results. And again, teams doing a great job providing excellent customer service, getting Timm Johnson, Right parts the right place right time, and so you know in a soft parts market customers are really focused on required maintenance, and so we were able to address that shift. Timm Johnson, And what we're forecasting going forward is is you have a rebalancing of that mix as as the market improves and and a higher take on proprietary parts.
spk08: Timm Johnson, That is helpful. And then just really quickly, inventories. Can you just give us an update on where PACCAR is versus the market? And then just in terms of truck cresting, how are you thinking about that evolving as you go through 2016?
Preston Feight: Sure. When you look at the industry inventory, I think industry inventory for Class 8 is 3.2 months, and PACCAR is at 2.2 months. So we feel like we're in an optimal spot on our inventory positioning. And at least for us, we would expect build registrations to be fairly aligned this year. So that gives us a good opportunity as well. And we're starting to see that. Like we're starting to see dealers come in with stock orders. And as we mentioned previously, bodybuilders want to have their spots put in. So that's the way we see inventory and its relationship to our build.
spk08: Got it. Thank you.
Operator: You bet. Our next question comes from Jamie Cook with Truist. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
spk10: Hi. Good morning. A nice quarter. I guess, yeah, good morning. I guess my first question, understanding your retail sales forecast for North America, and now that we have more clarity on EPA 2027, obviously markets appear better versus where we were. But Preston, to what degree are you concerned, you know, the supply chain can't ramp if things really do improve? And where would those bottlenecks be? And how are you handling that? And then my second question, which is my guess is you won't answer, but I'm going to try. You know, the revenues were better, deliveries were better, your gross margins were in line with your forecast, but you said it was hurt by, you know, your shift in manufacturing local for local. Is there any way you'll quantify, you know, what that impact was in the fourth quarter? Thank you.
Preston Feight: Yeah, so your second question, you're right, you understand it. It was significant. I'm not going to give you a number because there's a lot of gray in that number, so I'd be taking a number that has multiple inputs to it. say that it was a significant impact to us and it is one that we don't expect to carry forward as we look into the future quarters. From a bottlenecks of supplier standpoint, does that have an impact on the year? I feel like that's something that our customers are going to need to think about. We have great relationships with our suppliers. We've given them our forecasts and we've given them that cadence of sequential growth and acceleration through the year and our expectations of our build. So they're aware of it. That helps them, right? So having a good plan helps them. but it does mean that if we get into a third, fourth quarter where a build is significantly higher, then it puts stress on their systems as well. And we've been through this cycle. You just articulated it. There comes a point where if the ramp is too significant, it becomes bounded. We don't see that yet, but we don't rule out that that could happen in the second half of the year as well. And if that's what happens, then that's typically when price accelerates.
spk10: Okay, great. Thank you. Look forward to seeing you in February.
Preston Feight: Yeah, I look forward to seeing you too.
Operator: Our next question comes from Steven Volkman with Jefferies. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
spk11: Hi. Thanks for taking the question. I wanted to stick with the 27 NOx thing. Have you guys communicated to your customers and maybe even if you're willing to to us what the price increase associated with that will be?
Preston Feight: You know, we've talked in generalities, and the reason we speak in generalities is because I think the EPA has done a very good job of trying to let people know there would be 35 milligrams, but they also have stated that they're looking at useful life and warranty and what those impacts would be on cost, so those could still be subject to change. In general, I think the best number is to use like a plus or minus on $10,000. That's what we've been talking to customers about. It gives them a range to think about so they can kind of plan in with a new technology and a $10,000 increase, does it mean they want to shift their buying pattern around?
spk11: Great. That's helpful. And then this is almost going back to Jamie's question, but so presumably there'll be some sort of a pre-buy as we get toward the end of the year. I think you guys have been in that camp for a while now, but Um, if the demand were stronger, would you be willing to flex up to meet it? Or does the fact that 27 probably sort of comes back down fairly quickly post the change mean that it's sort of your appetite for building a lot in the second half is more limited.
Preston Feight: You know, we serve our customers. And so if our customers are asking us for trucks, we do everything in our power to get them trucks. Okay, great. Thank you. Yeah, you bet.
Operator: We now turn to Kyle Manges with Citi. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
spk14: Thank you. I wanted to follow up on the last question. I guess more, not as much on the customer side, but just from the standpoint of the potential of dealers stocking up, you may be willing to carry a little bit more inventory into 2027. You made a comment that you're seeing dealers ordering stock trucks right now. So it would be helpful to just hear about how you're thinking of the potential for dealer stocking and, I guess, risk of an inventory overhang exiting 2026.
Preston Feight: Well, I mean, I think the statement of an inventory overhang has a negative connotation to it to me. And I'm not sure that if they had inventory going into 2027, that would be necessarily too big of a problem. I think that it's a little early to predict what the fourth quarter is going to look like because, as I said, we have to see what the rules end up being from the EPA. I do think there will be an acceleration through the year. That seems obviously starting to happen to me. How big that is and how significant it is at the year end, I think that's a lot of speculation that we can't really get to yet.
spk14: Got it. And then just on the parts guidance, the 4% to 8% and starting the first quarter at plus 3%, just how much visibility do you have to that ramp going from 3% to, I guess, plus 7% or 8% as we move throughout 2026? And just what are the key drivers of that acceleration and growth?
Kevin Behney: Kyle, the key drivers are just the anticipated demand as we go through the year with the market. We've had, if you look at last year, It was a relatively soft market throughout the year, and so just with customers accelerating, putting trucks back into service, we just were anticipating kind of a steady growth as we go through the year.
Preston Feight: The other thing you could maybe think of is tariffs should be a favorability in the parts side, just like they are in the truck side as you look at the year.
spk14: That's right. Helpful. Thank you, guys. You bet.
Operator: As another reminder, if you'd like to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad now. We now turn to Tammy Sicaria with JP Morgan. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
spk01: Hey, good morning. Thank you so much. First question is on the tariff-related surcharges or price increases you talked about last year. Are you rolling back some of those price increases or surcharges, given that Section 232 eases some of the tariff cost burdens for you now?
Preston Feight: Yes, Tammy, we are. We've gotten rid of tariff surcharges for 2026. So they sit in there in terms of what our actuals are, because remember, IEPA is still sitting out there as a tariff cost for everyone. That needs to be clarified still. But we are seeing some price degradation price slide in Q1 expectation, but more than offset by cost. So that gives us a positive in price cost.
spk01: Understood. That's super helpful. And as a follow-up, I wanted to understand the first quarter gross margin guide a little better. Did you see at any point in the fourth quarter the gross margin rate being in that 12.5% to 13% range? Meaning, is it fair to assume that you exited a 4Q Dina Israel- At a 12 and a half to 13% rain and that's what you're expecting for the full quarter in the first quarter, given deliveries would be similar.
Preston Feight: Dina Israel- yeah I think I think what you're insinuating is are we seeing sequential improvement in margin by month and we don't break it out that way, but in general, yes we're seeing improvement in margin as we go sequentially even within quarters.
spk01: Dina Israel- Understood, thank you.
Operator: Our next question comes from Jeff Kaufman with Vertical Research Partners. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
spk03: Thank you very much and congratulations. I just wanted to think a little bit about... Thank you. I just wanted to think a little bit about margin opportunity or market share opportunity in 2026. We've been speaking with some trucking companies that have said even now they still can't really put in orders for freight liners or internationals because post the 232 tariffs, they're not really certain what those prices are. So you talked about the shift post 232 and how that's an advantage for you. What are your customers telling you about their ability to those that have, say, more than one nameplate, more than just Kenworth and Peterbilt on their fleet. Because we've seen the uptick in truck purchasing, and to your point, that could be a combination of, okay, we got EPA clarity, we got 232 clarity on our domestic produced trucks. But our understanding is your customers are still having trouble putting in orders for their non-U.S.-built trucks post-232. So could there be a bigger –
Preston Feight: opportunity for market share for you and then when will you get some more uh certainty on that yeah I think you must be talking to the same people we're talking to um because I think they would like to have that clarity as well in terms of what pricing is going to be from some of our competitors and that will certainly find its way into the market in the coming months we've been able to give them clarity from our standpoint I think which is helpful and so we feel like we should be able to meet their demand when they're ready to make those decisions, which should be good for us through the year, both, I think, from a market share standpoint and a margin standpoint.
spk03: So just to follow up on that, the increased confidence you're seeing with their customers, and I know ACT Research just put the pre-buy back into their numbers. How much of this do you feel is increased confidence in the environment versus maybe just increased clarity on what's going on with EPA?
Preston Feight: Yeah, I think it's both. I think that the clarity is helpful, but without the confidence in the freight markets, without the rate increases, and without increased profitability for the carriers, the 40% of the truckload carriers being in the market, they need those things in order to be more than just tariff and regulatory clarity. So I do think it's a both thing, and I think that's where we're at the point where we have tariff clarity, we have regulatory clarity happening, but I think we're just in the beginning parts of having the truckload carrier profitability return. So that has to continue to evolve, which will be positive for the year when that happens.
spk03: Okay, thank you very much.
Preston Feight: Yeah, you bet. Thank you. See you soon.
Operator: And our final question comes from Michael Fenniger with Bankers America. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
spk06: Yep. Hey, guys, thanks for squeezing me in. I appreciate it. Yeah, you bet. You got called. appreciate it. You guys touched on the price versus cost trending more favorably in Q1 versus Q4. It's mostly on the cost side. You commented how pricing is a little soft in Q1. You pointed out how competitors have not fully taken in tariff costs to market. We're hearing commentary out there on discounts. How do you see pricing, you know, in Q1, but beyond Q1 kind of playing out through the year, you know, as we start to get closer to that pre-buy?
Preston Feight: I think that's what's going to be telling us once there's price clarity from everybody in the market and the tariffs are affected into things, it's going to be, there will be some costs that come along. And I think that's where price will start to become a favorable factor through the year.
spk06: All right. And when we think, is there a rule of thumb, we should think about your cost of goods sold, how much is raw materials, what we should be watching, what the lag is there.
spk05: Yeah, this is Bryce. The material in our product is the vast majority. It's 80-85%. So labor and overhead are the remainder. So materials mean a lot in our pricing.
spk06: Fair enough. And look, you guys have an analyst day in a few weeks. I remember at the 2022 investor day, there was just a lot of focus from investors if PACR can drive higher margin cycle over cycle and you clearly delivered that in 2023 with with strong profitability now as we're coming off this investor day in a few weeks early innings of this of we're hoping the new truck cycle do you think we can see higher cycle over cycle profitability uh that that continue what are some of the factors we should be thinking about as we're we're assessing the profitability as we're moving to this next you know recovering truck cycle thanks everyone
Preston Feight: Yeah, thanks to the commentary, first of all, and then the question, because the commentary is great. I think it's absolutely objectively true. Cycle-over-cycle performance that teams have delivered is really significant and outstanding. We'll share more of that on the Investor Day. And then as we look to the future, we feel great about the opportunities in front of us. It's not just trucks, and it's not just parts, and it's not just financial services, but we think there's other new opportunities coming towards us in terms of how we support our customers with advanced transportation solutions, data, connectivity, and the interplay of all of those. So those are all positive for the business looking forward. So we feel great about not just this year, but the future, and look forward to seeing many of you in Denton.
Operator: There are no other questions in the queue at this time. Are there any additional remarks from the company?
PACCAR Investor Relations: We'd like to thank everyone for joining the call, and we look forward to the upcoming Analyst Day on February 10th. Please keep an eye on the PACR investor relations page for a link to the webcast. Thanks again.
Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes PACR's earnings call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.
