Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc.

Greetings, and welcome to the Lincoln Electric 2023 Second Quarter Financial Results Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode, and this call is being recorded. It is my pleasure to introduce your host, Amanda Butler, Vice President of Investor Relations and Communications. Thank you. You may begin.

Thank you, Therese, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to Lincoln Electric's second quarter 2023 conference call. We released our financial results earlier today, and you can find our release as an attachment to this call's slide presentation, as well as on the Lincoln Electric website at lincolnelectric.com in the investor relations section. And joining me on the call today is Chris Mapes, Lincoln's chairman, president, and chief executive officer, Gabe Bruno, our chief financial officer, and Steve Hedlund, chief operating officer. Chris will begin with quarterly highlights, Steve will provide a discussion of end market trends, and Gabe will cover quarterly financial performance in more detail, as well as our 2023 assumptions. Following our prepared remarks, we are happy to take your questions. But before we start our discussion today, please note that certain statements made during this call may be forward-looking, and actual results may differ materially from our expectations due to a number of risk factors. A discussion of some of the risks and uncertainties that may affect our results are provided in our press release and in our SEC filings on Forms 10-K and 10-Q. In addition, we discuss financial measures that do not conform to U.S. GAAP. A reconciliation of non-GAAP measures to the comparable GAAP measure is found in the financial tables in our earnings release, which, again, is available in the Investor Relations section of our website at LincolnElectric.com. And with that, I'll turn the call over to Chris Mapes. Chris?

Thank you, Amanda. Good morning, everyone. Turning to slide three, I'm pleased to report we generated another quarter of record results. Record second quarter sales, adjusted operating income profit margin, adjusted earnings per share, and cash flow generation all reinforced solid momentum in the business. We continue to win in the market, supporting solid industrial production activity, strong capital spending, and the continued adoption of automation. In the second quarter, we effectively managed dynamic operating conditions and achieved our neutral price cost target year to date. The team is doing an excellent job balancing the constraints of tight supply chain conditions and elevated inflation levels in our equipment portfolio with more normalized supply chain conditions across the rest of our portfolio. In the quarter, All of our reportable segments generated profit margins within their higher standard strategy EBIT margin ranges, demonstrating the effectiveness of our commercial and operational initiatives. We also achieved over 100% cash conversion in the first six months of the year, which is ahead of plan on improved profit performance and inventory levels. We also maintained top decile returns with an adjusted ROIC of 22.9% and returned $90 million to shareholders in the quarter. Our integration of 4E Automation and PowerMig is on track, which will drive our automation portfolio margins from low double-digit percent to mid-teens percent by 2025. In addition, Our planned fourth quarter 2023 production and launch of our 150 kilowatt DC fast charger remains on schedule and we are planning a NACS and CCS compatible version in early 2024. The team continues to do an exceptional job serving our customers, driving innovation and advancing operational excellence across our facilities. I couldn't be more pleased by our progress, which positions us to meet and exceed our higher standard 2025 strategy targets. Now to share more detail on our second quarter sales performance, I'll pass the call to Steve Hedlund.