Bel Fuse Inc.

Good morning and welcome to the Bellevue second quarter 2024 earnings call. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode. A brief question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. Should anyone require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the call over to Jean Marie Young with three part advisors. Please go ahead, Jean.

Thank you, and good morning, everyone. Before we begin, I'd like to remind everyone that during today's conference call, we will make statements relating to our business that will be considered forward-looking statements under federal securities laws that will be such as statements regarding the company's expected operating and financial performance for future periods, including guidance for future periods in 2024. These statements are based on the company's current expectations and reflects the company's views only as of today, and should not be considered representative of the company's views as of any subsequent date. The company disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements or outlook. Actual results for future periods may differ materially from those projected by these forward-looking statements due to a number of risks, uncertainties, and other factors. These material risks are summarized in the press release that we issued after market closed yesterday. Additional information about the material risks and other important factors that could potentially impact our financial performance and cause actual results to differ materially from our expectations is discussed in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our most recent annual report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31st, 2023, and our quarterly reports and other documents that we have filed or may file with the SEC from time to time. We may also discuss non-GAAP results during this call and reconciliations of our GAAP results to non-GAAP results have been included in our press release. Our press release and our SEC fundings are all available at the IR section of our website. Joining me on the call today is Dan Bernstein, President and CEO, Farouk Tewik, CFO, and Lynn Hutkin, Vice President of Financial Reporting and Investor Relations. With that, I'd like to turn the call over to Dan. Dan?

Thank you, Jean. Good morning, and thank you for joining our second quarter 2024 earnings call. Overall, we were pleased with our second quarter results. The collective work of the global team over the past year has resulted in improved margins, even in a challenging top-line environment. Our sales came in at $133 million, achieving the higher end of the forecast range we provided on last year quarter earnings call. And in relating earnings press releases with gross margins well above forecast range. Each of our product groups trended as expected with modest essential growth and connectivity and magnetics from quarter 124 being offset in part by 1.7 million reduction in power sales. We are proud of the excellent results achieved by the team. On the management side, early this month, we welcome Steve Dawson onto the executive team as the new president of Power Solutions and Protection. Our power group is going through a pivotal transition with AI and e-mobility as long-term growth drivers. and we are excited to have Steve at their helm as these new markets unlock with new opportunities. We would like to thank Dennis for his almost four decades of dedication to Bell and helping achieve the success we have today. His commitment and friendship have been displayed, deeply valued by all of us at Bell, and wish him the best in his retirement. To provide an update on our previously announced $25 million stock buy program, we have continued to make open market purchases of both class of stocks As of June 30, 2024, our program to date purchased a total of $14.2 million, representing 20,600 shares of Class A and common stock of 214,900 shares of Class B common stock. Lastly, we're pleased for our Class A stock to be added to the Russell 2000 index. In late June, this is a testament to the overall growth of the company and our recent IR efforts which aided in the class of stock meeting the eligibility requirements for inclusion in this index for the first time in Bell's history. And with that, I would now like to turn over to Lynn. Lynn?