RDNW August 11, 2026

RideNow Q2 2026 Earnings Call - Adjusted EBITDA Surges 19% Amid Store Consolidation and Refinancing Push

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Summary

RideNow delivered a compelling display of operational discipline in Q2 2026, proving that shrinking the footprint can sharpen profitability. Same-store revenue grew 3% while total revenue dipped slightly due to five permanent store closures, a strategic move that allowed adjusted EBITDA to jump 19.2% to $20.5 million. The company is clearly prioritizing margin expansion over top-line vanity metrics, successfully driving new unit gross margins up to 14.8% and tightening SG&A expenses relative to gross profit.

Key Takeaways

  • Adjusted EBITDA rose 19.2% year-over-year to $20.5 million, signaling significant operating leverage despite a slight top-line contraction.
  • Same-store revenue increased 3% to $291.5 million, marking the fourth consecutive quarter of same-store revenue growth.
  • Total revenue declined 1% to $296.8 million, primarily driven by the closure of five stores in the prior year period.
  • Total unit sales fell 2.9% to 16,626 units, with new retail sales up 1.8% offset by a 6.8% drop in pre-owned retail units.
  • New unit gross margins expanded notably to 14.8% from 13.2% in Q2 2025, reflecting improved pricing power or mix.
  • Pre-owned gross margins compressed to 18% from 18.8%, highlighting the ongoing margin pressure in the used vehicle segment.
  • Adjusted SG&A expenses as a percentage of gross profit improved to 74.1% from 77.4%, demonstrating strict cost control.
  • The company secured a new $20 million used floor plan facility, replacing an existing related-party line to improve balance sheet transparency.
  • Total liquidity stood at $158.2 million, combining $63.1 million in cash with approximately $95.1 million in available revolving floorplan credit.
  • Management confirmed no significant deterioration in credit metrics or default rates among financing applicants despite macro volatility.
  • Inventory levels are managed tightly, with total on-hand inventory in the low four-month range, though new inventory is slightly high and used is low.
  • The company is actively using digital marketing and trade-in programs to source used inventory, reducing reliance on the wholesale market.
  • Acquisition strategy remains on hold pending the completion of a major refinancing effort, which management expects to announce in the near future.
  • Adjusted free cash flow for the first half of 2026 improved dramatically to $20.8 million from $2.9 million in the prior year period.
  • CEO Michael Quartieri emphasized that macroeconomic headwinds are impacting June sales slightly, but the team remains focused on internal operational controls.

Full Transcript

Operator: This call is being recorded on Tuesday, August 11, 2026. I would now like to turn the conference over to Jerene Makia, Vice President of Finance. Please go ahead.

Jerene Makia, Vice President of Finance, RideNow: Thank you, operator. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us for RideNow’s second quarter 2026 earnings conference call. Joining me on the call today are Michael Quartieri, RideNow’s Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, and President, and Josh Barsetti, RideNow’s Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Our second quarter results are detailed in the press release issued this afternoon, and supplemental information will be available in our Form 10-Q once filed. Before we begin, I would like to remind you that comments made by management during this conference call may contain forward-looking statements, including but not limited to RideNow’s market opportunities and future financial results. All forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, which could affect RideNow’s actual results and cause actual results to differ materially from forward-looking statements made by or on behalf of RideNow.

A discussion of material risks and important factors that could affect our actual results can be found in our filings with the SEC, which are available on our investor relations website and at sec.gov. This conference call also contains time-sensitive information that is accurate only as of the date of this live broadcast, Tuesday, August 11, 2026. RideNow assumes no obligation to revise or update any forward-looking statements, whether written or oral, to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this conference call, except as required by law. Also, the following discussion contains non-GAAP financial measures. For a reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures, please refer to our earnings release published today and available on our investor relations website. Now I’ll turn the call over to Michael Quartieri.

Michael Quartieri, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, and President, RideNow: Thanks, Jerene. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us for RideNow second quarter 2026 earnings call. The strong momentum we built during the second half of 2025 has continued through the first half of 2026. I am proud to report that our Q2 2026 same-store revenue reached $291.5 million, up 3% over the prior year period. Furthermore, adjusted EBITDA rose to $20.5 million, a 19.2% increase year-over-year. As we advance through our turnaround, we continue to capture incremental wins and absorb valuable lessons. We are still in the early innings. This makes it essential to keep a level head, maintain diligent effort, and stay laser focused on what we can control within the four walls of our business. By prioritizing strategic execution and continuous improvement, both in our stores and across our corporate support center, we are driving the positive momentum reflected in our results today.

Our balanced tactical plan combines near-term operational improvements with structural changes to advance our long-term strategic direction, ultimately creating sustained value for our shareholders. Our near-term initiatives, securing the right leadership, maintaining a disciplined focus on cost efficiency, and reinstating operational rigor across all stores continue to progress. With each step, we position the company for greater operating leverage. Our team is fully aligned around clear goals and a culture of accountability. Beyond our improved financial performance, we achieved several key milestones during the quarter. We were added to the Russell 2000 Index, secured a new $20 million used floor plan facility, and expanded our floor plan capacity for new products. We also completed the relocation of our Tallahassee and Gainesville, Florida stores into integrated and upgraded facilities.

Most importantly, we made substantial progress on our refinancing efforts, and I look forward to sharing more details on that front in the near future. Each of these achievements is a direct testament to our operational momentum. Looking ahead, we are well-positioned to build on this foundation. We expect to continue to deliver strong levels of adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow throughout the remainder of 2026. As always, we will deploy this capital with a strict discipline of an owner-oriented company. Moving forward, our financial strength positions us to return to growth through highly accretive acquisitions, which remain a key pillar of our long-term value strategy. With that, I will turn the call over to Josh for a more detailed review of the second quarter financial results.

Josh Barsetti, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, RideNow: Thanks, Mike, and good afternoon, everyone. I’ll start by reviewing our financial results for the second quarter of 2026, followed by an overview of our balance sheet. During the quarter, we generated total revenue of $296.8 million, compared to $299.9 million in the prior year quarter. This decrease was predominantly driven by our store consolidation efforts, which resulted in operating five fewer stores during the current quarter as compared to the prior year quarter. Additionally, adjusted EBITDA increased 19.2% to $20.5 million, up from $17.2 million in the second quarter of 2025. Adjusted SG&A expenses were $62.8 million, or 74.1% of gross profit, down 3.3% compared to $64.9 million, or 77.4% of gross profit in the same quarter of last year. During the quarter, we sold 16,626 units, down 491 units or 2.9% from the same quarter last year.

Total new retail unit sales were 10,807, up 189 units or 1.8% compared to Q2 of last year, and pre-owned retail units totaled 4,924, down 359 units or 6.8%. Higher total unit volume led to a $1.1 million improvement in gross profit dollars, which totaled $84.8 million during the second quarter of 2026. New unit gross margins improved to 14.8% for the quarter compared to 13.2% for the same quarter last year, while pre-owned gross margins decreased from 18.8% in last year’s second quarter to 18% in the second quarter of the current year. Our fixed operations business, consisting of parts, service, and accessories, delivered $50.1 million in revenue and $24.2 million in gross profit. Additionally, our finance and insurance teams delivered $27 million in revenue, down $200,000 compared to $27.2 million in the prior year’s quarter.

For the six months ended June 30, revenue was up $12.6 million to $557.2 million as compared to $544.6 million for the prior year period. Gross profit was $156.4 million for the first half of the year compared to $151.1 million in the prior year period. Adjusted EBITDA was $29.8 million, up from $23.2 million, an increase of $6.6 million over the prior year period. On a same-store basis, which excludes the five stores permanently closed in the prior year and any fleet-related units, revenue was $291.5 million during the second quarter of 2026 as compared to $282.9 million in 2025, a 3% increase. Total same-store gross profit was $183 million this year compared to $81.4 million in the prior year period, a 2% increase. Q2 marks the fourth consecutive quarter of same-store growth in revenue and units sold and the fifth consecutive quarter of same-store growth in gross profit.

For the six months ended June 30, same-store revenue was up $37.9 million to $549.7 million as compared to $511.8 million in the prior year period. Gross profit was $154 million in the first half of the year compared to $145.2 million in the prior year period. Turning to the balance sheet, we ended the quarter with $63.1 million in total cash inclusive of restricted cash. As Mike mentioned earlier, we secured a $20 million used floorplan facility and added additional floorplan availability for new products. The used floorplan will replace our existing related party floorplan line, which will wind down this month. At the end of the quarter, our availability under short-term revolving floorplan credit facilities totaled approximately $95.1 million, and total available liquidity defined as total cash plus availability under floorplan credit facilities totaled $158.2 million at the end of the quarter.

Additionally, non-vehicle net debt was $174.4 million. Cash outflows from operating activities was $28.2 million for the six months ended June 30, 2026. Effective this quarter, we will now report adjusted free cash flow as a non-GAAP measure. Adjusted free cash flow is defined as cash flows used in or provided by operating activities, adjusted for net activity from our non-trade floorplan facilities and any cash flows associated with business acquisitions and dispositions, less purchases of CapEx. For the six months ended June 30, adjusted free cash flow was $20.8 million compared to $2.9 million for the same period in the prior year, as the company drew down on our floorplan facilities to fund additional inventory. With that, we’d like to begin the question and answer session. I’ll turn the call back over to the operator now to open the lines. Operator?

Operator: Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you’re using a speakerphone, please speak up your handset before pressing the keys. To withdraw your question, please press star two. With that, your first question comes from the line of Eric Wold with Texas Capital. Please go ahead.

Eric Wold, Analyst, Texas Capital: Thanks, Japhim. A couple questions. I guess one, maybe just give us a sense of what you are seeing from the customer base that is coming into the stores, as they maybe have a preconceived notion they walk in there, but as they gravitate between new versus pre-owned. What do you read from their decision there? Is there any kind of major delta still on discounting on the new vehicles versus pre-owned that would push them one way or another?

Michael Quartieri, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, and President, RideNow: No, I think what we have seen so far is it has been pretty consistent. It is really just a function of if there is an OEM offer that is out there, what we have typically seen and experienced is something around the 0% financing or a very low interest rate is driving consumer behavior, as 65% of our customers are financing their units. What tends to drive more volume for the OEMs is more around interest rate or money factor support as it is compared to straight rebates. From a used inventory perspective, I think overall what you end up having is a competitive environment, not only for ourselves with our competitors in the dealership space, but also just the continued growth in private sales that are taking place within the marketplace.

Eric Wold, Analyst, Texas Capital: Okay. Maybe take it a step further then, talk about where you are in inventories right now with where you would want to be in total, and then does the last comment you made around pre-owned vehicles and continued growth in private sales, does that indicate that it has become more difficult to get your hands on pre-owned vehicles that you would want given the competition there?

Josh Barsetti, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, RideNow: Yeah. On the inventory-on-hand piece of that question, we are still fairly comfortable with where we are. We are in the low four-month range, which is really where we would like to be. If you break that out in between used and new is a little bit on the higher side right now, and used is a little bit on the lower side of that four-month spectrum. But overall, we are still in a pretty good spot from an inventory perspective. Then when it comes to the used side of the equation, we feel like we have a pretty good mix of current product. It is really a matter of meeting what the customer needs are as they walk in the door. But we feel like we are in pretty good shape there as well.

Michael Quartieri, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, and President, RideNow: Yeah, I think the one other bit of just additional color is we have the benefit of having the cash offer tool that’s available to us to be able to use to acquire inventory. The vast majority or, say, a good portion of that inventory that we’re acquiring, not out of the wholesale market, but really comes through on the trade side. As more customers come in and we get that opportunity, whether it’s through service or our other call-to-action type campaigns from a digital marketing perspective, it’s just a different avenue that we’ve been taking over the last, call it, year or so as we’ve expanded our digital marketing capabilities to hone in on that opportunity to acquire additional inventory.

It is a competitive environment out there, but we are finding the inventory that we want on opportunities for trade-ins or things to that effect, where we are taking that trade-in and that’s inventory that may not be desirable to us. That inventory is going straight to auction immediately. I think the team that we have around our used inventory is honed in. Cam Tkach, our Chief Operating Officer, is on top of that on a regular basis, so we feel very confident on where we are from an overall perspective of inventory.

Eric Wold, Analyst, Texas Capital: Perfect. Thank you.

Michael Quartieri, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, and President, RideNow: You’re welcome.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Alice Wickland with Baird. Please go ahead.

Alice Wickland, Analyst, Baird: Hi, gentlemen. Thanks for taking my questions. I am on for Craig today. Just wondering if maybe we can dial in a little bit on the consumer, and wondering how they have behaved with all the volatility in the headlines. Is there any discernible trend in traffic as some of these macro events pop up?

Michael Quartieri, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, and President, RideNow: Yeah, look, you think about when you start throughout the full year, we have seen a lot of good momentum in the first half of the year. We saw that continue in Q2. We experienced a nice increase year-over-year in June, especially now, we will caution also this by looking at more of the, call it, disturbance or just volatility that is in the market today. We are seeing same-store sales that are down slightly on a year-over-year basis in the low single digits. But again, it is early in the quarter, as much as it changes to the downside, it changes to the upside as well. So from our perspective, as I have said multiple times on these calls, from a macro perspective, we cannot control that, but what we can control is what takes place within the four walls of our operations, and that is what we are focused on.

Alice Wickland, Analyst, Baird: Great. That is helpful. Then just on the credit side, any significant trends there to call out? I know you mentioned interest rates kind of on the promotional side driving consumers a bit, but any significant credit trends to call out?

Michael Quartieri, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, and President, RideNow: No, not at this point. We regularly look at all metrics that we can get from our third-party finance providers, whether that is around credit scores of applicants, default rates, things of that effect. And we are seeing no real change in that throughout the whole of 2026 period.

Alice Wickland, Analyst, Baird: Then maybe just one more for me. Just kind of the M&A landscape. I know you have talked about return to growth through highly accretive acquisitions, part of your long-term strategy. But what does the landscape or the pipeline look like today?

Michael Quartieri, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, and President, RideNow: Our major focus right now is getting the refinancing completed, which I said we will have more news to share in the coming weeks. Once that is completed, we will be able to turn the engine on of finding those right acquisitions, whether they are in the form of tuck-ins to where we can find a single point dealer and move that point into our existing footprint to create more of that aircraft carrier type feel, in addition to exploring other new markets that we have not been in previously.

Alice Wickland, Analyst, Baird: Great. Thanks. That is it for me.

Michael Quartieri, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, and President, RideNow: Thank you.

Operator: I am showing no further questions at this time. Ladies and gentlemen, this now concludes today’s conference call. Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect.