Ulta Beauty, Inc.

Good afternoon and welcome to Ulta Beauty's conference call to discuss results for the first quarter of fiscal 2021. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A brief question and answer session will follow a formal presentation. If anyone should require operators to return to conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce Ms. Kylie Rawlins, Vice President of Investor Relations. Ms. Rawlins, please proceed.

Thank you, Shamali. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. Hosting our call are Mary Dillon, Chief Executive Officer, Dave Kimball, President, and Scott Setterston, Chief Financial Officer. Keisha Steelman, Chief Store Operations Officer, will join us for the Q&A session. Before we begin, I'd like to remind you that statements made on this conference call, which are not historical facts, may be deemed to constitute forward-looking statements. within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual future results may differ materially from those projected in such statements due to a number of risks and uncertainties, all of which are described in the company's filings with the SEC. We caution you not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of today, May 27, 2021. We have no obligation to update or revise our forward-looking statements except as required by law, and you should not expect us to do so. In today's comments, we will discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures, including adjusted operating income, adjusted net income, and adjusted diluted earnings per share, which have been presented to reflect our view of ongoing operations by adjusting fiscal 2020 results for store impairment charges, and adjusting both 2021 and 2020 for stock compensation and other tax credits. A reconciliation of these measures for the corresponding gap measures can be found in our earnings release, which is available in the investor relations section of our website at www.ulta.com. Following prepared comments from our leadership team, we will open the call for questions. To allow us to accommodate as many people as possible during the hour scheduled for this call, We ask that you please limit your time to one question with one quick related follow-up question if needed. As always, I'll be available for any follow-up questions after the call. Now I'll turn the call over to Mary. Mary?

Thank you, Kylie, and good afternoon, everyone. This afternoon we reported record first quarter financial performance with sales and earnings exceeding both fiscal 2020 and fiscal 2019 levels. For the first quarter, net sales increased 65.2%, to $1.9 billion. Operating margin was 15.8 percent of sales, and GAAP diluted EPS was $4.10 per share. Adjusted diluted EPS for the quarter was $4.07 per share. Fiscal 2021 is off to a fantastic start at Ulta Beauty, and I want to thank all our associates for their continued efforts to deliver great experiences and support our business in an environment that continues to be very dynamic. Now, as you know, this will be the final time I speak with all of you as CEO, as I will transition to Executive Chair of Ulta Beauty next week after our annual shareholder meeting. I cannot express how much of an honor serving as CEO of Ulta Beauty has been for me. I'm proud of what we've accomplished over the last eight years and the amazing team and culture that we've built. I want to thank my leadership team for their collaboration, agility, and commitment to our associates and guests. And I want to thank all of you in the investor community for your interest and support. I am really excited about Ulta Beauty's future, and I'm confident this will be a seamless leadership transition. Dave's passion for Ulta Beauty and our associates is unmatched, and he knows the beauty category, our business, and our guests very well. In fact, his role as Chief Marketing Officer, Chief Merchandising Officer, and President have given him a much better understanding of the category, demand creation, and the needs of our guests than I had when I assumed the CEO role eight years ago. I know his knowledge and commitment will position him well to lead Ulta Beauty through its next chapter of growth. And although many of you have met her, I want to take a moment to introduce Keisha Steelman, who is joining the call today and will become our Chief Operating Officer. Keisha's done an outstanding job as our store operations leader for the past seven plus years, and I'm excited that she'll expand her scope to include supply chain, Ulta Beauty at Target, and enterprise-level continuous improvement efforts. As you get to know her in this new role, I know you'll be impressed by her knowledge, leadership style, and passion for our business, associates, and guests. Although this change is somewhat bittersweet for me personally, I'm excited about my new role as executive chair. I look forward to supporting Dave, Keisha, and the rest of the Ulta Beauty leadership team as they build on what we've accomplished together and continue to lead and disrupt the beauty category for many years to come. Now I'll turn the call over to Dave to share more detail about the first quarter's results.