U-Haul (UHAL) Q2 2027 Earnings Report

The call was generally optimistic, supported by higher earnings, revenue growth, improved transaction and mileage trends, lower fleet investment, improved depreciation and disposal results, strong liquidity, and continued development of the storage and U-Box businesses. Offsetting challenges included lower storage occupancy, operating-margin pressure from higher expenses and freight costs, core self-moving revenue below its prior peak, and the absence of a clear structural demand catalyst.

Management said October revenue has trended a bit higher than what our second quarter results were and is still projecting a decrease of a little over $500 million for net fleet investments by the end of the fiscal year; the pace of development spending is approaching likely our steady state, with approximately 5.5 million new square feet being developed across 110 projects and a pipeline of projects not yet started of about 5.5 million square feet, versus about 6.5 million square feet of active development and 7.7 million in the pipeline last year. U-Box-related real estate spending is expected to continue to trend down, projected covered spaces are probably about half of what they were a year ago or 2 years ago, and the company expects to run a sizable positive variance on fleet liability costs over the second half of this year; freight costs are expected to go up, while the company will optimize them and ensure customer rates appropriately reflect them.