Willdan Group, Inc.

Today, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Wilden Group third quarter 2023 financial results conference call. Our host for today's call is Al Kazchok, Vice President of Investor Relations. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question and answer session. I would now like to turn the call over to your host, Mr. Kazchok. The floor is yours.

Thank you, Morgan. Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to Wildan Group's third quarter 2023 earnings call. Joining our call today are Tom Brisbane, Chair and Chief Executive Officer, Kim Hurley, Chief Financial Officer, and Mike Beaver, President. The call today builds on our earnings release we issued after market closed today. You may find the earnings release and the Wildan investor report that accompanies today's call in the press release and stock information section of our investor relations website. Management will review prepared remarks, and we will then open the call up to your questions. Statements made in the course of today's conference call, including answers to your questions, which are not purely historical, are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The forward-looking statements involve certain risks and uncertainties, and it is important to note that the company's future results could differ materially from those in any such forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially and other risk factors are listed from time to time in the company's SEC reports, including but not limited to the annual report on Form 10-K filed for the year ended December 30, 2022. The company cautions investors not to place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements made during the course of this conference call. It will then disclaim any obligation and does not undertake to update or revise any forward-looking statements made today. In addition, the GAAP results will then also provide non-GAAP financial measures that we believe enhance the investors' ability to analyze the business trends and performance Our non-GAAP measures include net revenue, adjusted EBITDA, and adjusted EPS. Alan, I'll turn the call over to Tom Brisbane, Will Dan's chair and CEO.

Thanks, John, and good afternoon, everyone. Will Dan's strategy is to reduce the amount of electricity and natural gas that people use. In this clean energy transition to reduce carbon, we focus on how to make this affordable for people. We work for the largest, most stable customers, for example, governments, utilities, and industry, who need to reduce their energy consumption for their customers. Utilities and government are under extreme pressure to make this clean energy transition affordable. This is where Wildan is primarily focused. We are not in the generation of green energy or projects that require bank financing. Very few of our projects require bank financing and are not impacted by interest rates. Our projects are generally incentivized and are affordable for people. Paybacks are generally less than two years and save people money. Welland's strategy started with energy efficiency. Simply stated, use less electricity and save money. We have expanded greatly over the past 10 years. To remind everyone, we are a professional service company helping customers solve problems with knowledge and software. We strive for affordable solutions. This word affordable cannot be stressed enough during this clean energy transition. People cannot afford significantly higher energy costs. WellDance projects help people save money. For example, our new construction contracts for utilities touch 10% of all new commercial building construction in the United States. All services and software are focused on saving energy, again, the word affordable. Integral analytics software helps utilities modernize the grid at the least cost and highest benefit. We are agnostic to the generation source, whether it be solar, wind, or batteries, and we help integrate them into the local grid at the least cost. For one of the largest healthcare groups in America, we are assessing 1,200 facilities in order to reach their decarbonization goals at an affordable pace. For New York City, we completed this study for their 4,000 buildings. Using proprietary software, we prioritize what buildings and measures should be done first within their budget. The common theme to our clean energy transition strategy has been an affordable reduction of carbon. Our strategy has always been to reduce the load on the grid and shift the demand. Our current electrification projects that increase the load are being coupled with demand response. This is where we can shift the load away from the time of day when electricity is expensive. Again, focused on affordable. I want our investors, employees, and customers to recognize what role we play in this decarbonization journey. Simply stated, affordable, clean energy. It is a tough assignment. We have 1,600 really smart people who are taking on this challenge. Our business is growing again post-COVID. The results of the last four quarters are evidence. Last quarter, we had a record trailing a record trailing 12 months of EBITDA. Again, in this third quarter of 2023, we delivered another trailing 12-month record. For the third quarter, we continued our solid performance. Our focused execution across the organization drove double-digit increases versus a prior year in nearly all of our key metrics. The team is converting this organic revenue growth, 11% for the quarter, and 17% for nine months through profit and cash flow. Our strategy is working. I would like to share some of the many opportunities we are capturing supporting our expanding backlog. We are sharing these new projects to give our investors confidence that our strategy has the momentum to continue our growth through 2024 and beyond. Despite the higher interest rates that are delaying and terminating large-scale projects dependent on financing, our affordable solutions model is growing. Here are some examples. Our engineering segments are winning new projects in geography, as well as integrating the energy transition that cities are embracing. Organic growth in this segment is 15% for the quarter, and for nine months it is also 15%. Our integral analytics software group is having a great year and their pipeline for 24 looks strong. We believe IA is getting better at selling and the software and the demand is increasing. Our performance engineering group has won several new jobs that will be announced over the coming weeks. This service is being cross-sold very effectively throughout the organization. Our utility programs are doing or I should say are going well. We have successfully restructured the California IOU programs. All re-competes this year were successfully won. We have also gained new utilities in the Midwest and Northeast. Our engineering work in the Northeast for New York City Housing Authority, NYCHA, the New York Power Authority, and the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York are doing well and growing. Summarizing our performance to date, the WILDAN organization has recovered and is functioning very well. We look to our E3 group to continue leading us during this energy transition. We also anticipate looking to E3 to add capabilities in 2024. In closing, demand for our services remains healthy, led by the energy transition and demand from municipalities. Given the strength in our end market, our impressive year-to-day performance, and our expectation for the momentum to continue, we are raising our 2023 guidance. Our strong financial position, further amplified by the successful refinancing of our credit facilities, puts us in a position to actively pursue strategic acquisitions that align with our business objectives. I am confident that by executing our strategy, we are positioning the company to deliver strong, long-term shareholder returns. I want to thank our employees, customers, and stockholders for your support. I will now turn the call over to Kim, who will provide additional details on our financial results and our updated guidance.