Woodward, Inc.

for standing by. Welcome to the Woodward Inc. third quarter fiscal year 2023 earnings call. At this time, I would like to inform you that this call is being ordered for rebroadcast and that all participants are in listen-only mode. Following the presentation, you are invited to participate in a question and answer session. Joining us today from the company are Chip Blankenship, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Bill Lacey, Chief Financial Officer, and Dan Provaznik, Director of Investor Relations. I would now like to turn the call over to Dan Provaznik. Please go ahead.

Thank you, operator. We'd like to welcome all of you to Woodward's third quarter fiscal year 2023 earnings call. In today's call, Chip will comment on our strategies and related markets. Bill will then discuss our financial results as outlined in our earnings release. At the end of the presentation, we will take questions. For those who have not seen today's earnings release, you can find it on our website at woodward.com. We have again included some presentation materials to go along with today's call that are also accessible on our website. An audio replay of this call will be available by phone or on our website through August 14, 2023. The phone number for the audio replay is on the press release announcing this call as well as on our website and will be repeated by the operator at the end of the call. I would like to refer to and highlight our cautionary statement as shown on slide three. As always, elements of this presentation are forward-looking, including our guidance, and are based on our current outlook and assumptions for the global economy and our businesses more specifically. Those elements can and do frequently change. Our forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties surrounding those elements, including the risks we identify in our filings. In addition, Woodward is providing certain non-US GAAP financial measures. We direct your attention to the reconciliations of non-US GAAP financial measures, which are included in today's slide presentation and our earnings release and related schedules. We believe this additional financial information will help in understanding our results. Now, I will turn the call over to Chip to comment further on our results, strategies, and markets.

Thank you, Dan, and good afternoon, everyone. We delivered strong sales growth in the third quarter, driven by robust demand and our improved ability to deliver products to our customers. We expanded margins through productivity improvements and price realization, partially offset by increased material and labor costs. We continue to make progress on our strategic initiatives focused on enhancing the customer experience, simplifying operations, and increasing profitability through improved execution. Output is increasing, pricing actions are yielding results, and we are seeing efficiency gains as our new members come up the learning curve and become more proficient in their jobs. We've seen improvement in our supply-based performance. However, the environment remains challenging, and we continue to actively manage and problem solve with our suppliers. Our team has done a great job responding to the fluctuating delivery risk landscape. We remain focused on this work stream with significant resource allocation and a goal of identifying risks further upstream and launching countermeasures earlier in the process. Moving to our markets. In aerospace, commercial airline utilization rates continue to rise with U.S., Europe, and China domestic passenger traffic now surpassing 2019 levels. In addition, international travel continues to improve nearing 2019 levels. In defense, due to geopolitical developments and government spending proposals, we expect R&D and procurement to increase, which bodes well for Woodward's future opportunities. In industrial, demand for power generation remains strong, driven by growth in Asia, increases in aftermarket activity, and continued demand for backup power. In transportation, the global marine market remains healthy with increased shipbuild rates and higher utilization driving current and future aftermarket activity. Marine customers continue to launch more projects that incorporate alternative fuel capability in their specifications. This should drive expanded OEM and aftermarket opportunities as multi-fuel engines contain greater woodwork content. In addition, Chinese heavy-duty truck output increased significantly in February, as did the portion that is natural gas powered. The natural gas powered production rate has been relatively stable since February, but future demand remains uncertain. In oil and gas, global investment in LNG infrastructure development continues. Rig counts increased globally, though U.S. activity declined year over year. In summary, the market signals we are receiving indicate continued strong demand. We remain focused on operational excellence, developing talent, and innovating for the future, which we believe will drive long-term, sustainable growth and deliver enhanced value for shareholders. Before we move on to our financial results, I'd like to introduce Bill Lacey, who took the helm as CFO in May. Bill has a distinguished track record in financial operations and business leadership. With three months in role, Bill is well integrated into Woodward, and he is already contributing to the team. Bill, welcome to your first Woodward earnings call. I'll now turn it over to you to share our financial results.