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Text: Jon Vander Ark, our CEO; and Brian DelGhiaccio, our CFO, are joining me as we discuss our performance.
The material that we discuss today is time-sensitive.
If in the future, you listen to a rebroadcast or recording of this conference call, you should be sensitive to the date of the original call, which is July 29, 2021.
I want to remind you that Republic's management team routinely participates in investor conferences.
We are very pleased with our strong performance in the second quarter.
Our results reflect strong execution and continued momentum on our strategic priorities which are building capabilities to further differentiate us from competitors.
These capabilities include: driving growth and building customer loyalty through a maniacal focus on the customer, which we call Customer Zeal; leveraging digital tools to the experience for our customers and employees, which we believe drives growth and generates operational efficiencies; and prioritizing sustainability by offering environmentally responsible solutions to our customers while protecting the planet.
During the second quarter, we delivered adjusted earnings per share of $1.09, which represents a 36% increase over the prior year, expanded EBITDA margin of 110 basis points to 30.6%, and generated $1 billion of adjusted free cash flow on a year-to-date basis.
We continue to effectively allocate capital by investing in value-creating acquisitions and returning excess cash to our shareholders.
Year-to-date, we invested $567 million in acquisitions to further enhance our market position and increase free cash flow.
Our pipeline of acquisition opportunities remains robust, with opportunities in both solid waste and the Environmental Solutions portion of our business.
We expect to invest well over $600 million in acquisitions for the full year.
Year-to-date, we returned $363 million to our shareholders through dividends and share repurchases, and our Board recently approved an 8% increase in the quarterly dividend.
The strength of the underlying business is irrefutable, and we continue to see the proof points that our strategy is working.
Retention in our small and large container business remains at historically high levels at 94%.
If you further consider all permanent units of service, retention is even higher at 95%.
As anticipated, the pricing environment was strong in the second quarter.
Total core price was 5.2%, and average yield was 2.6%.
This level of core price matches the highest level in our company's history.
During the second quarter, we delivered outsized growth in our business as the economy improved.
Second quarter volume increased 8.1% compared to the prior year, which exceeded our expectations.
The outlook for growth in the remainder of the year, both organically and through acquisitions, is strong.
We continue to see the benefits of our investments in technology and are well underway on the rollout of the next phase of our RISE platform.
Through the second quarter, we implemented tablets in approximately 40% -- 47% of our large and small container fleet.
We expect to be substantially complete by the end of this year, with plans to further deploy to the residential fleet beginning in 2022.
The in-cab tablets enable automated customer notifications, which provides customers real-time information about their service.
Next, we believe sustainability is more than environmental stewardship but also a platform for growth.
We recently published our new sustainability report, which highlights the progress we are making in our most significant opportunities to positively impact our stakeholders and the environment.
For example, we are proud to report a 5% reduction in operational greenhouse gas emissions in 2020 compared to the prior year.
This year, we expanded and converted a landfill gas energy plant to high BTU and have 15 additional projects in the pipeline.
These projects reduce landfill emissions, generate more renewable and improve our economics.
We are also making the communities in which we operate better places to live.
So far this year, we've supported more than 25 charitable efforts and neighborhood revitalization projects through financial contributions and volunteer efforts.
This is in addition to the ongoing support of our local divisions provide to their communities.
In recognition of our ESG performance and transparency, we were named to 3BL Media's 100 Best Corporate Citizens list for the second consecutive year.
Finally, turning to our outlook for the remainder of the year.
We expect continued strength in our business and to exceed the full year guidance we upwardly revised last quarter.
Accordingly, we are updating full year financial guidance as follows.
Adjusted earnings per share is now expected to be in a range of $4 to $4.05, and adjusted free cash flow is now expected to be in a range of $1.45 billion to $1.475 billion.
This represents an increase of over 6% from the midpoint of the prior guidance.
Second quarter core price was 5.2%, which included open market pricing of 6.5% and restricted pricing of 3%.
Core price in the open market was the highest level in company history.
The components of core price included small container of 7.9%, large container of 5.3% and residential of 5%.
Average yield was 2.6%, which increased 30 basis points from the first quarter.
This level of performance was in line with our expectations.
Second quarter volume increased 8.1%.
While we expected second quarter to be the highest reported volume for the year, the 8.1% growth exceeded our expectations.
The components of volume included an increase in small container of 8.6%, an increase in large container of 13.7% and an increase in landfill of 12.6%.
For reference, second quarter volumes in our small and large container businesses were down less than 1% from a 2019 pre-pandemic baseline, and MSW and C&D landfill volumes were both above the pre-pandemic baseline.
Moving on to recycling.
Commodity prices increased to $170 per ton in the second quarter.
This compared to $101 per ton in the prior year.
Recycling processing and commodity sales contributed 100 basis points to internal growth during the second quarter.
Next, turning to our Environmental Solutions business.
Second quarter Environmental Solutions revenue was essentially flat with the prior year.
Approximately 30% of our Environmental Solutions business is in the upstream oil and gas sector, and 70% is in the downstream petrochemical and broader industrial manufacturing sectors.
The downstream petrochemical and industrial manufacturing portion of this business grew 8% compared to the prior year.
Adjusted EBITDA margin for the second quarter was 30.6% and increased 110 basis points over the prior year.
This included 130 basis points, a 50 basis point increase from recycled commodity prices and a 70 basis point headwind from net fuel.
The margin expansion is a direct result of pricing in excess of our cost inflation realizing operating leverage as volumes return, and continued effective cost management.
SG&A was 10.7% of revenue, which was flat with the prior year.
SG&A included higher levels of incentive compensation due to projected financial outperformance.
SG&A would have been approximately 10%, excluding the additional incentive compensation expenses.
Year-to-date, adjusted free cash flow was $1 billion and increased $276 million or 38% compared to the prior year.
The drivers of growth included EBITDA growth in the business, a positive contribution from a 1.5-day improvement in DSO and the timing of capital expenditures.
We received approximately 40% of our projected full year capex during the first half of the year.
During the quarter, total debt was $9 billion, and total liquidity was $2.9 billion.
Interest expense decreased $13 million due to refinancing activities completed last year, and our leverage ratio was 2.9 times.
With respect to taxes, our second quarter adjusted effective tax rate was 21.6%.
We had an equivalent tax impact of 23.7% if you include noncash charges from solar investments.
We'll expect a full year equivalent tax impact of 26%, which includes the effective tax rate and noncash solar charges.
With that, operator, I would like to open the call to questions.

user
q2 adjusted non-gaap earnings per share $1.09.
sees fy adjusted earnings per share $4.00 to $4.05.
raised 2021 full-year financial guidance.
increased quarterly dividend by approximately 8 percent.
qtrly revenue $2,812.8 million versus $2,454.4 million.

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