Transcript: Equity Lifestyle Props Q1 2026 Earnings Conference Call - Equity Lifestyle Props (NYSE:ELS)

On Wednesday, Equity Lifestyle Props (NYSE:ELS) discussed first-quarter financial results during its earnings call. The full transcript is provided below. Benzinga APIs provide real-time access to earnings call transcripts and financial data. Visit www.benzinga.com/apis to learn more. The full earnings call is available at edge.media-server.com/mmc/p/49... Summary Equity Lifestyle Props reported strong first-quarter 2026 financial performance, maintaining full-year normalized FFO guidance of $3.17 per share, with a core portfolio NOI growth of 4.9%. The company's manufactured housing portfolio, which comprises 60% of total revenue, is 94% occupied, driven by a high rate of homeownership among residents. Equity Lifestyle Props continues to expand in high-demand areas, adding over 1,100 MH sites in Florida since 2020, and pursuing technology investments to enhance customer experience. The balance sheet is robust, with a long average debt maturity and limited refinancing risks, supporting a stable capital structure. Guidance adjustments for 2026 include a slight reduction in RV and Marina rent growth due to delayed marina slip restoration but maintain overall positive expectations for core property income growth. Full Transcript OPERATOR Marguerite Nader (Vice Chairman and CEO) Patrick Waite (President and COO) Paul Seavey (Executive Vice President and CFO) OPERATOR Thank you. To ask a question please press star 11 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question please press star 11 again. Please stand by while we compile the Q and A roster. And our first question comes from Jamie Feldman of Wells Fargo. Your line is open. Jamie Feldman (Equity Analyst) Great. Thanks for taking my question. I wanted to dig a little deeper into the insurance renewal and then just the impact on the expense savings and the new guidance. Can you talk about what you had in the original guidance for the insurance renewal, how that compares to the down 18% and then just maybe some of the moving pieces around the expense savings in the guidance going forward. Paul Seavey (Executive Vice President and CFO) Jamie Feldman (Equity Analyst) But are you able to say, like, what was in the initial number for the insurance? I'm just trying to figure out how much better it was than what you thought. Paul Seavey (Executive Vice President and CFO) Yeah, generally we don't go into that level of detail, Jamie. Okay. All right, thank you. OPERATOR Thank you. And our next question comes from Yana Gowen of Bank of America securities. Your line is open. Yana Gowen (Equity Analyst) Thank you. And good morning. Good morning. Following up on the revised seasonal and transient top line guide, can you just talk a little bit more about booking visibility and kind of reservation pacing and, I don't know, any impacts with kind of the weather? Paul Seavey (Executive Vice President and CFO) Shawn OPERATOR Thank you. And our next question comes from Eric Wolf of Citi. Your line is open. Eric Wolf (Equity Analyst) Hey, thanks. For the northeast annual RV sites, can you just talk through the trends that you're seeing there? I think last year around this time, you started seeing some higher turnover, like 20 properties or so. Does that seem to be normalizing? Is occupancy head behind? Maybe just talk through sort of for those northeast properties, the annual trends you're seeing thus far. Patrick Waite (President and COO) Eric Wolf (Equity Analyst) Patrick Waite (President and COO) OPERATOR Okay, thank you. Thanks, Eric. Thank you. And our next question comes from John Kim of BMO Capital Markets. Your line is open. John Kim (Equity Analyst) Thank you. On manufactured housing occupancy, it continued to trend down. It did end the quarter on a high note. But I'm wondering how you see that playing out for the rest of the Paul Seavey (Executive Vice President and CFO) John Kim (Equity Analyst) Okay. Can I ask a second question? Sure. Again, the thousand trails you talked about a new, I think a new rate Paul Seavey (Executive Vice President and CFO) OPERATOR Thank you. And our next question comes from Hendell Saint Just of Mizuho Securities. Your line is open. Hendell Saint Just (Equity Analyst) Paul Seavey (Executive Vice President and CFO) OPERATOR Got it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And our next question comes from Brad Heffern of rbc. Line is open. Brad Heffern (Equity Analyst) Yeah. Hey everybody. Thanks. Historically, you've talked about weather being the primary swing factor on RV transient and there hasn't really been an obvious impact from gas price movements. Obviously with the war, we're seeing a much more dramatic and quick change in prices. Is there anything in your data that suggests that it might be having a negative impact on transient demand? Paul Seavey (Executive Vice President and CFO) Brad Heffern (Equity Analyst) Okay, got it. Thanks for that. And then, you know, the Canadian tariffs kind of went into effect more than a year ago, so we should be starting to lap some of the comps on the board. Are you seeing any evidence that those Canadian customers might be coming back or any other color that you can give around that? Paul Seavey (Executive Vice President and CFO) Yeah, we're just out of the summer season and the impact of the Canadians rolled through those results. I think it's early to call what we're going to see for the summer season and certainly we're in some unpredictable times. But we'll provide updates as we start to get greater visibility into the next couple of quarters. OPERATOR Okay, thank you, thank you, thank you. And our next question comes from Michael Goldsmith of ubs. Your line is open. Michael Goldsmith (Equity Analyst) Paul Seavey (Executive Vice President and CFO) Michael Goldsmith (Equity Analyst) Got it. And then just as my follow up question on the home sale volumes on price, it looks like new sale volumes were down and the rate and the price per home was down. And then similarly on the used homes, I think they were also at least the price was down. So presumably that's mix shift. But can you provide a little bit more color in what's going on in the wholesale market? Paul Seavey (Executive Vice President and CFO) OPERATOR Thank you. And our next question comes from Wesley Galladay of Baird. Your line is open. Wesley Galladay (Equity Analyst) Hi everyone. Can you unpack the seasonal and domestic transient guests for the first quarter? Was that positive growth? Paul Seavey (Executive Vice President and CFO) Ex Canadian? Yes, it was primarily overall it was growth. It did included the Canadian customer in the revenue, of course. But just to be clear, the marginal improvement was from customers that we saw booking seasonal stays during. Wesley Galladay (Equity Analyst) I guess the, I mean if you were to the could you unpack the domestic traveler, was that positive? That customer segment bottomed. And do you have a positive outlook for that Segment going forward, Paul Seavey (Executive Vice President and CFO) Wesley Galladay (Equity Analyst) Okay, got that. Thank you for that. And then one more bigger picture question. With the rise of artificial intelligence and the way people are searching for products these days, are you noticing any change in the way you source your residents or seasonal and transient guests? Paul Seavey (Executive Vice President and CFO) OPERATOR Great. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. And our next question comes from Jason Wayne of Barclays. Your line is open. Jason Wayne (Equity Analyst) Thank you. Good morning. Just looking at the RB and Marina Morning. Looking at the RV Marina annual guidance cut. So that was driven primarily by transient and marinas. So can you just give any color on how rent growth and occupancy trends in RV annual specifically in the first quarter and what your assumptions are for the rest of the year? RV Annual specifically? Paul Seavey (Executive Vice President and CFO) Well, the RV annual, when we reported in October, we provided our guide for rate growth that was 5.1%. And that's been consistent. And we anticipate that to be consistent for 2026. We're seeing no change from that. And in terms of occupancy, we had roughly 100 sites that we were down in the first quarter. And we anticipate, as Patrick was talking, talking recovery of those sites and addition of annual sites throughout the year. Jason Wayne (Equity Analyst) Got it. And then it looks like there were some other sites added this quarter. Just curious where those new sites were added, if that was all in kind of the markets you mentioned earlier and if there's any that are expected to come online this year in those markets and maybe outside them. Paul Seavey (Executive Vice President and CFO) Jason Wayne (Equity Analyst) All right, got it. Thank you. OPERATOR Thank you. Thank you. And our next question comes from David Seagal of Green Street. Your line is open. David Seagal (Equity Analyst) Hey, thank you. Just to follow up on the site count changes, what do you think are the prospects for reclassifying those sites that Paul Seavey (Executive Vice President and CFO) OPERATOR Great, thank you. Thank you. Thanks. Thank you. And our next question comes from Peter Abramowicz of Deutsche Bank. Your line is open. Peter Abramowicz (Equity Analyst) Yes, thank you for taking the question. Just wondering, could you give us kind Paul Seavey (Executive Vice President and CFO) Patrick Waite (President and COO) OPERATOR All right, thank you, thank you, thank you. And our next question comes from Adam Kramer of Morgan Stanley. Your line is open. Adam Kramer (Equity Analyst) Patrick Waite (President and COO) Paul Seavey (Executive Vice President and CFO) OPERATOR Thanks for the time. Thank you. Thank you. And our next question comes from Steve Sakwa of Evercore isi. Your line is open. Steve Sakwa (Equity Analyst) Patrick Waite (President and COO) OPERATOR Thank you. And we have a follow up from Eric Wolf of Citi. Your line is open. Eric Wolf (Equity Analyst) Thanks for taking these other questions. If I look at your guidance changes in the supplemental, it adds up to almost 2 cents of positive benefit. I'm just wondering what's offsetting that. Paul Seavey (Executive Vice President and CFO) OPERATOR Thank you. And we have a follow up from Brad Heffern of rbc, your line is open. Brad Heffern (Equity Analyst) Yeah, thanks for taking the follow up on the RB site count. What is the financial impact of a seasonal site moving to Transportation Transient? I'm sure obviously it could just get booked again as a seasonal next winter. But if it stays a transient site, is there a meaningful negative financial impact from that? Paul Seavey (Executive Vice President and CFO) I mean, it really depends on how that site was performing, I guess. You know, just think, if you just think about the annual conversions to transient, our average annual is about 7,000 or $8,000 and. And your average transient customer is about $81 per night. So it depends how many nights and both same with the seasonal. How many nights are occupied as to whether or not you have a financial impact to that conversion. Brad Heffern (Equity Analyst) Okay, but the like shift of those, whatever it was, 1400 sites, is that meaningful in some way or is it really just moving, you know, change from one pocket to the other? Paul Seavey (Executive Vice President and CFO) Well, it's. I mean, it's already embedded in our guidance because it's simply a reflection of what we experienced during the winter season in terms of the occupancy of those sites. Okay, thank you. Thanks. OPERATOR Thanks, Fred. Jamie Feldman (Equity Analyst) Thank you. And we have a follow up from Jamie Feldman of Wells Fargo. Your line is open. Great, thank you. Had very strict instructions from Adam to ask one question. Paul Seavey (Executive Vice President and CFO) So I'm back. Good job, Ann. We appreciate it, Jamie. Appreciate it. It's so hard. So I've had a couple people ask me to clarify. So I apologize if you guys already answered this, provided it. But the 50 basis point cut to RV and Marina based rental income, was that all from the slips? And if it wasn't all the slips, how do you break it out between RV and marina? Jamie Feldman (Equity Analyst) Paul Seavey (Executive Vice President and CFO) OPERATOR Thank you. Since we have no further questions on the line, I'd like to turn it back over to Marguerite Nader for closing remarks. Marguerite Nader (Vice Chairman and CEO) Thanks for taking the time today to listen to our call. We look forward to updating you on our second quarter earnings. Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs To add Benzinga News as your preferred source on Google, click here.