Agilent Technologies, Inc.

Please stand by. We're about to begin. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Agilent Technologies Q1 2023 earnings call. My name is Beau, and I will be coordinating your call today. If you would like to ask a question following the presentation, you may do so by pressing star 1 on your telephone keypad. I'll now hand you over to your host, Arneet Ahuja, to begin the conference. Arneet, please go ahead.

Thank you, Bo, and welcome everyone to Agilent's conference call for the first quarter of fiscal year 2023. With me are Mike McMullen, Agilent President and CEO, and Bob McMahon, Agilent Senior Vice President and CFO. Joining in the Q&A after Mike and Bob's comments will be Jacob Tyson, President of the Agilent Life Science and Applied Markets Group, Sam Raha, President of the Agilent Diagnostics and Genomics Group, and Porig McDonnell, president of the Agilent Cross Lab Group. This presentation is being webcast live. The news release for our first quarter financial results, investor presentation, and information to supplement today's discussion, along with a recording of this webcast, are available on our website at www.investor.agilent.com. Today's comments by Mike and Bob will refer to non-GAAP financial measures. You will find the most directly comparable GAAP financial metrics and reconciliations on our website. Unless otherwise noted, all references to increases or decreases in financial metrics are year-over-year and references to revenue growth are on a core basis. Core revenue growth excludes the impact of currency, and any acquisitions and divestitures completed within the past 12 months. Our guidance is based on forecasted currency exchange rates. During this call, we will also make forward-looking statements about the financial performance of the company. These statements are subject to risk and uncertainties and are only valid as of today. The company assumes no obligation to update them. Please look at the company's recent SEC filings for a more complete picture of our risk and other factors. And now I'd like to turn the call over to Mike.

Thanks, Parmeet. And thanks, everyone, for joining our call today. The Agilent team delivered an excellent start to 2023, exceeding both top and bottom line expectations. Q1 revenues of $1.76 billion are up 10% core. Agilent's broad-based portfolio and resilient growth model are on a full display during the quarter, with growth across all end markets and geographic regions. Operating margins of the quarter are 27.1%, up 80 basis points. Earnings per share of $1.37 are up 13%. Let's now take a closer look at our first quarter performance, starting with end market highlights. Chemical and advanced materials led the way for us, with another outstanding quarter. delivering 14% core growth with strength across all geographies. The strength in our pharma business continues and is up 11% with both large and small molecule growing nicely. This is on top of 17% growth last year. Our environmental forensic business grew 12% while the academia and government and the food markets both grew 8%. On a geographic basis, China once again led the way. Our China team continued their record of strong execution, overcoming any disruption associated with COVID, and delivered 13% growth during the quarter, exceeding our expectations. In Europe, we also delivered stronger-than-expected results, growing 10%. The Americas posed a solid result with 8% growth. Looking at our performance by business unit, the Life Sciences Applied Markets Group delivered revenues of $1.03 billion. up 11 percent core. LSAG delivered growth across all end markets and regions. Our LC and LC-MS platforms continued their strong performance during the quarter, growing faster than the market at 16 percent. Demand in the chemicals and advanced materials end market continues to be strong, particularly for materials used in manufacturing semiconductors and batteries. Our spectroscopy business grew more than 20 percent in the quarter, And we continue to strengthen our position and spectroscopy across multiple end markets. In Q1, we announced the deployment of the InSight 200M. This system is used at checkpoints throughout the London Heathrow Airport to efficiently provide enhanced security and ensure passenger safety. The Agilent Cross Lab Group posted revenue of $381 million in Q1. This is up 13% core, as the team continues to take advantage of record instrument placements over the past two years, along with continued growth and attach rates. The CrossLab team's deep knowledge of customer lab operations continues to drive consistently high levels of customer satisfaction. The breadth and diversity of our product offerings is driving record renewals for support contracts. At the same time, our enterprise services business continues a strong momentum, driving growth and converting competitive accounts. The Diagnostic Jointness Group delivered revenues of $342 million of 5% core. Our pathology-related business formed well, with double-digit growth led by the Americas and Europe. NASD closed another strong quarter, growing 22%. Our train B manufacturing expansion remains on track to come online mid-calendar year. In January, we announced an additional $725 million expansion of our NASD facility that will double our oligo manufacturing capacity. And two weeks ago, we were pleased to have the Governor of Colorado join us at our groundbreaking ceremony at the Frederick site. In addition to organic investments, we continue to invest externally in new technologies and partnerships. In the quarter, we welcomed the Aveda Biomed team into Ashland, further enhancing our genomics capabilities. Novita is an early-stage life sciences company designed to assist clinical researchers using NGS approaches to study cancer. We also continue to partner with new technology platform companies to drive our solutions in the marketplace. This quarter, we announced a partnership with Akoya Biosciences to combine our companion diagnostic and IHC workflow expertise with their solution to drive multiplex tissue assay development for biopharma. In addition to these business group highlights, Agilent was again recognized among the top 100 most just companies in the U.S. by Just Capital and CNBC. As part of this announcement, we are very proud to be the leader in the medical equipment and services industry for our treatment of employees and focus on customer relations. The Agilent team navigated challenging market uncertainties in Q1 and yet once again produced excellent results It was a great start to the year. Q1 was another outstanding example of the work we've done to build a resilient company with multiple growth drivers. Those growth drivers created through targeted investments that aim to expand and enhance our business' high growth areas are the heart of our build and buy growth strategy. As we look ahead to Q2, we remain confident in the strength and resilience of our business. We have an unstoppable One Agilent team that continues to execute at an extremely high level and is well prepared to deal with any challenges they face. Given the strong start to the year, we are raising our full-year core revenue and EPS guidance while also keeping a close eye on macroeconomic conditions. Bob will provide the details and overall outlook, but overall, we remain convinced our strategic focus and unmatched execution capabilities will continue to drive strong results. Thank you for joining us today. And now, Bob, over to you.