DLH Holdings Corp.

Good day and welcome to the DLH Holdings Fiscal 2026 First Quarter Earnings Conference Call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star, then one on a touch-tone phone. To withdraw your question, please press star, then two. Please note that this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Chris Witte, Investor Relations Advisor. Please go ahead.

Thank you, and good morning, everyone. On the call with me today is Zach Parker, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Katherine Johnable, Chief Financial Officer. The company's earnings release and PowerPoint presentation are available on our website under the Investor page. I would now like to provide a brief safe harbor statement, which is also shown on slide three of the presentation. This column may include forward-looking statements that relate to the company's outlook for fiscal 2026 and beyond. These statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results and events to differ materially from such statements. Please refer to the risk factors contained in the company's annual report on Form 10-K and in our other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We do not undertake any duty to update any forward-looking statements. On today's call, we'll be referencing both GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures. A reconciliation of our non-GAAP results to our reported GAAP results is included in our earnings release and in the investor presentation on DLH's website. President and CEO Zach Parker will speak next, followed by CFO Catherine Johnbull, after which we'll open it up for questions. With that, I'd now like to turn the call over to Zach. Please go ahead, Zach.

Thank you, Chris, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to our first quarter conference calls. I am pleased for the opportunity to report our financial results and provide color regarding the current environment and outlook. Now turning to slide four, I'll provide an overview of our achievements and outlook. The first quarter was marked by the longest government shutdown in our nation's history, followed by a short-term funding gap at the end of January. However, the recently enacted budget provides increased funding capacity and improved visibility for our clients for the remainder of the fiscal year across our markets. We expect that to be a positive impact. Notably, key federal health agencies received funding increases compared to the fiscal 2025 levels, reversing in part previously disclosed funding reductions to our current and addressable markets. We believe This improved clarity and stability meaningfully support the company's organic growth initiatives. This budget stability comes at an opportune time for DLH as we continue to see improving demand across our core markets. Defense and intelligence customers are emphasizing rapid delivery, cost efficiency, digital modernization, and advanced technology integration through the application of command control, communications, computers, cyber defense, and combat systems with intelligence, surveillance, and recognizance, known as C6ISR expertise. At the same time, federal health agencies continue to prioritize system interoperability, cybersecurity, including zero trust applications, cloud migration, and AI adoption. which positions DLH competitively well for modernization-driven awards. These are areas that leverage our strengths, our capabilities, and our innovative proprietary tools, as discussed previously, to enhance productivity on current work while elevating our competitive position on organic growth opportunities. While revenue was down year over year, largely due to our previously discussed program transitions to small business set-aside contracts, such as the VAC MOP and Head Start, we are seeing improved visibility and are encouraged by the midterm outlook. More importantly, we delivered sequential improvement in adjusted EBITDA margins from the fourth quarter, as Catherine will discuss in more detail shortly. We remain firmly focused on expanding efficiencies and margins and improving overall returns as the year progresses and award decisions are made. We also continue to execute on our commitment to deleveraging the balance sheet. As is typical in the first quarter, debt increased modestly. driven primarily by the timing of labor and payroll tax repayments around public holidays. That said, we remain on track with our debt reduction plans for fiscal 2026. Overall, we remain well positioned to succeed over the coming years, including competing effectively for high organic value opportunities within a healthy and expansive addressable market. Our differentiated technology application capabilities, tools, and workforce alignment exceptionally well position us within our three strategic pillars. Those are digital transformation and cybersecurity, science research and development, and systems engineering and integration. Importantly, the improved clarity around the fiscal 26 budget, combined with our broad portfolio of contract vehicles, bodes well for DLH's long-term growth outlook. We remain committed to continued investment in the talent, tools, and technologies required to meet the evolving, complex needs of our customers across each of our core markets. Our customers leverage our capabilities to access leading-edge processing speeds, digital sandbox environments, tailored integrations with COTS products and technologies, advanced data science, and actionable visualizations and dashboards that support mission-critical decision making. While the government services market has experienced meaningful disruption this year, driven by delays in contract solicitations and awards, and previously uncertain budget visibility, we have continued to use this period to transform DLH in a positive way. Today, we are a technology, engineering, and scientific solutions provider that is extremely well positioned to compete for the opportunities of the future. As we work to enhance our organic profile, we will remain disciplined in reducing our indirect costs and managing our capital deployment. The management team and I are confident that DLH is on track to exit fiscal 2026 in a much stronger position than we began, and we are encouraged by what lies ahead. Before I close, I would like to recognize the performance of our deep and highly credentialed workforce in a challenging environment We lean on the passion, ingenuity, and expertise of our staff to succeed. This past quarter, you once again surmounted extraordinary challenges in support of our customers. As always, thank you to everyone at DLH for your commitment to excellence that you demonstrated each day. With that, I'd now like to turn the call over to our Chief Financial Officer, Catherine Johnville. Catherine.