ePlus inc.

Good day, everyone, and welcome to the E-Plus Earnings Release Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode, and later we will take your questions. I would now like to hand the call over to Mr. Clay Parker. Please go ahead.

Thank you for joining us today. On the call is Mark Maron, CEO and President, Darren Raguel, COO and President of E-Plus Technology, Elaine Marion, CFO, and Erica Stoker, General Counsel. I want to take a moment to remind you that the statements we make this afternoon that are not historical facts may be deemed to be forward-looking statements and are based on management's current plans, estimates, and projections. Actual and anticipated future results may vary materially due to certain risks and uncertainties detailed in the earnings release we issue this afternoon in our periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our most recent annual report on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, and in other documents that we may file with the SEC. Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date of which the statement is made, and the company undertakes no responsibility to update any of these forward-looking statements in light of new information, future events, or otherwise. In addition, we will be using certain non-GAAP measures during the call. We have included a GAAP financial reconciliation and earnings release, which is posted on the investor information section of our website at www.eplus.com. I'd like to turn the call over to Mark Marin. Mark?

Thank you, Clay, and thank you, everyone, for participating in today's call to discuss our first quarter fiscal 2024 results. I will start with some key takeaways. ePLUS delivered strong results in the first quarter, marking a great start to our fiscal year. Double-digit sales growth was driven by solid execution, our land and expand strategy, supply chain improvements, and contributions from acquisitions. Our team performed at a high level, executing consistently across all end markets. Our net sales growth of 25%, along with our scalable operating platform and disciplined cost management, drove significant operating leverage. Adjusted EBITDA rose 41% and diluted EPS improved 51% compared to the same period last year. The strength of our performance again highlighted how our strategic positioning and focus on serving faster growing solution areas enables us to generate growth well in excess of the overall market for IT spending. In today's environment where enterprises and organizations are prioritizing investments that optimize cost and security, we have continued to meet our customers' needs with a suite of products and services that deliver value rapidly and efficiently. During the first quarter, we continue to see an easing in supply chain constraints. With the improved product availability, we were able to complete a number of previously delayed customer projects, benefiting overall sales growth. Based on our conversations with our partners, we anticipate continued improvement in product availability and lead times over the remainder of the year. As you know, acquisitions represent the fundamental component of our growth strategy. And our first quarter results benefited from the contributions of our network solutions group and FutureCom, who we acquired in July of 2022. On a combined basis, these acquisitions contributed approximately one-third of our net sales growth in the first quarter. Our technology business sales increased 26% with demand improving across all end markets and across most product categories. We continue to get operating leverage in our technology business segment as evidenced by our operating income being up almost 50% versus last year. We experienced a broadening of customer demand trends in the first quarter across all customer size segments led by strength in the mid-market segment. The mid-market, which we define as organizations with 500 to 10,000 employees, is primarily focused on adopting cost-optimized cloud-based architectures, as well as enhancing cloud security to accommodate remote and hybrid work. Mid-market customers are particularly well-suited to partner with Eplus as their key areas of need align with our strengths in areas such as workplace transformation, cybersecurity, and technology modernization. Our customers are continuing to evaluate AI technologies, and we see it as an emerging growth driver. Many of our partners have incorporated AI into their core offerings to simplify and optimize operations, as well as provide faster detection, response, remediation on the security front. We empower customers with cutting edge AI optimized infrastructure solutions through strategic partnerships with industry leaders such as NVIDIA. Our AI services are designed to help customers adopt the latest technologies while increasing their speed to market. Our customers utilize our expertise to manage the complexity of designing, deploying, supporting, and managing AI. This can include building out an AI strategy plan, identifying priority projects, providing resources to help structure and implement AI projects, and then ensure proper governance and policies are applied and monitored. We believe with the expansion of data overall and the benefits of AI being embedded in hardware and networking platforms, will continue to provide modernization opportunities for infrastructure related to networking, security, cloud, and collaboration. Networking was the standout performer this quarter as gross billings increased 67%. The growth drivers included solid organic growth, reflecting demand for networking solutions that facilitate collaboration and enable workplace transformation, as well as improved product availability that allowed us to complete certain customer projects and the contribution from recent acquisitions. Security product gross billings increased 24% year-over-year on a trailing 12-month basis and is approximately 21% of total gross billings. We believe that cybersecurity remains an IT priority for organizations of all sizes, and we remain focused on providing the products and services that enable our customers to mitigate risk. Our services revenues improved by 7% as a slight decline in professional services was more than an offset by robust revenue growth in managed services. We saw a particularly strong demand for our enhanced maintenance support and SOC services. These and other managed services offer significant value to customers who face complex challenges in terms of managing cybersecurity risk, keeping pace with technological change, and recruiting and retaining IT talent. We continue to build out our annuity managed services with proprietary new offerings that expand our capabilities in our focus markets, such as E plus cloud managed services, storage as a service, and E plus lifecycle services support. Several months ago, we introduced E plus automated virtual assistant for collaboration spaces. This innovative solution utilizes robotic automation processes in conjunction with E plus managed services, to enhance the user experience in video-enabled meeting rooms and workspaces. By building out our portfolio of unique offerings, we are differentiating ePLUS against our competition while strengthening our value proposition. Managed services revenues increased 23.2% over last year and has generated a CAGR of 24.1% over the last five years. To put this in perspective, annuity quality services have almost doubled over the last three years. Moving to our finance segments, results for the quarter were consistent with our expectation given last year's first quarter produced outsized transactional gains from specific financing deals, creating a tough compare quarter over quarter. As a reminder, the financing business provides flexibility for our customers and is a competitive differentiator as compared to our technology market peers. Earlier, I noted the positive contributions from our recent acquisitions. As we look forward, acquisitions will remain an important element in our growth strategy, and the strength of our balance sheet affords us the flexibility to pursue additional value or creative transactions. Our M&A pipeline remains active, and we are currently evaluating a variety of targets that can further extend our capabilities and supplement our organic growth. I'd like to thank all our A-plus teammates for their efforts this quarter to drive our strong financial results, innovation, as well as numerous customer success stories. I will now turn the call over to Elaine to discuss our financial results in more detail. After Elaine's remarks, I will provide our financial outlook for fiscal 2024. Elaine?