Cintas Corporation

Good day everyone and welcome to the Cintas Corporation announces fiscal 2027 first quarter results conference call. Today's call is being recorded. At this time I would like to turn the call over to Mr. Jared Mattingly, Vice President, Treasurer and Investor Relations.

Please go ahead sir. Thank you Ross and thank you for joining us. With me are Todd Schneider, Chief Executive Officer, Jim Rozakis, President and Chief Operating Officer, and Scott Garula, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. We will discuss our fiscal 2027 first quarter results. After our commentary, we will open the call to questions from analysts. The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 provides a safe harbor from civil litigation for forward-looking statements. This conference call contains forward-looking statements that reflect the company's current views as to future events in financial performance. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results to differ materially from those we may discuss. I refer you to the discussion on these points contained in our most recent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. I'll now turn the call over to Todd.

Thank you, Jared. We are pleased with our start to fiscal 2027. Our first quarter results reflect the strength of our business model, the execution of our employee partners, and the value proposition we provide by helping customers meet their image, safety, cleanliness and compliance needs. First quarter total revenue grew 10.9% to $3.01 billion. This marks the first time we've reached $3 billion of revenue in a quarter. The organic growth rate, which adjusts for the impacts of acquisitions, foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations and workday differences was 8.9%. We remain encouraged by the consistency of demand we are seeing as businesses continue to see the value of outsourcing to a service provider like Cintas. Our first quarter performance demonstrates that Cintas is well positioned to help businesses of all sizes improve productivity, reduce complexity, and operate more efficiently. Whether through our uniform rental and facility services business, first aid and safety solutions, fire protection services, or our uniform direct sale business, Our value proposition continues to resonate. Diluted EPS for the quarter was $1.36, an increase of 13.3% from the prior year. Adjusting for the universe transaction related expenses, adjusted diluted EPS was $1.39, an increase of 15.8% from the prior year. Drawing on the strength of our performance, we continue to allocate capital in a balanced manner in the first quarter. Our capital expenditures were within our targeted range at 3.6% of sales. We were active in M&A and increased our dividend 15.6% for the shareholders of record as of August 14, 2026. We are pleased to have increased our dividend every year since going public 43 years ago. In addition, we were opportunistic with our share buybacks, purchasing $545 million through today's date. Our culture remains our greatest competitive advantage. The combination of our strong culture, operational excellence, effective supply chain management, technology investments, and focus on customer experience continues to differentiate Cintas in a highly competitive market. Reflecting our strong first quarter performance and confidence in the remainder of the year, we are updating our fiscal 2027 guidance. We're raising fiscal 2027 revenue guidance from a range of $12.10 billion to $12.25 billion to a range of $12.15 billion to $12.27 billion, a total growth rate of 7.9% to 8.9%. We're also raising our fiscal 2027 adjusted diluted EPS from a range of $5.36 to $5.50 to a range of $5.45 to $5.54, a growth rate of 10.3% to 12.1%. Before I turn the call over to Jim, I'd like to provide a brief update on our acquisition of Uniforce. First, we remain confident of the substantial long-term value creation for our combined customers, partners, and shareholders. We mentioned on our last call that the merger was subject to regulatory clearances in both the U.S. and Canada. That process is ongoing as we continue to work toward obtaining regulatory clearance and completing other closing conditions. We remain optimistic that the deal will close by the end of calendar 2026. In order to avoid creating speculation, we will not be providing any additional commentary on this process. We will update the market going forward as appropriate. With that, I'll turn over to Jim to discuss our operating performance in greater detail.