Arcosa, Inc.

Please stand by, we're about to begin. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the ARCOSA Inc. First Quarter 2024 Earnings Conference Call. My name is Jamie, and I will be your conference call coordinator today. As a reminder, today's call is being recorded. I'd now like to turn the call over to your host, Aaron Drabeck, Director of Investor Relations for ARCOSA. Ms. Drabeck, you may begin.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining ARCOSA's first quarter 2024 earnings call. With me today are Antonio Carrillo, President and CEO, and Gail Peck, CFO. A question and answer session will follow their prepared remarks. A copy of yesterday's press release and the slide presentation for this morning's call are posted on our investor relations website, ir.arcosa.com. A replay of today's call will be available for the next two weeks. Instructions for accessing the replay number are included in the press release. A replay of the webcast will be available for one year on our website under the news and events tab. Today's comments and presentation slides contain financial measures that have not been prepared in accordance with GAAP. Reconciliations of non-GAAP financial measures to the closest GAAP measure are included in the appendix of the slide presentation. In addition, today's conference call contains forward-looking statements as defined by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from such forward-looking statements. Please refer to the company's SEC filings for more information on these risks and uncertainties, including the press release we filed yesterday and our form 10Q expected to be filed later today. I would now like to turn the call over to Antonio.

Thank you Erin and good morning everyone. I will begin with some overall comments on our solid start to the year and Gail will provide additional details about our segment financial results. I will then discuss our outlook before we open the call for questions. Turning to slide four. Our first quarter operating and financial results exceeded our expectations. We executed well on several fronts and are pleased with the progress we're making, ramping up our cyclical businesses, improving our operating performance, and integrating recent acquisitions. Although we were broadly impacted by unfavorable weather in January, results improved significantly through the quarter, highlighting the earnings power of our portfolio of businesses. In the balance of the quarter, we achieved double digit adjusted EBITDA growth and higher overall margin on an organic basis. Overall, total first quarter revenues increased 9% year over year, reflecting solid organic performance across all business segments, as well as contributions from acquisitions completed over the past year. Consolidated adjusted EBITDA increased 7%, normalizing for the 22 million land sale gain in the same period last year. Finally, we reported significantly higher operating cash flow that helped fund key growth initiatives. Let me discuss a few key takeaways from the first quarter. Construction products benefited from strong pricing momentum, which offset modest decline in organic aggregate volumes. The acquisitions that we completed in 2023 in Florida, Arizona, and Texas also contributed to segment growth. Within specialty materials, the new plaster plant is doing well, and we are pleased to report another quarter of higher year-over-year performance. Engineer structures executed according to plan in the first quarter. Order activity in utility structures remains healthy, and we continue to discuss new wind tower orders with our customers, adding a small order to the backlog in the first quarter. While currently diluted to margin, the ramp up of our New Mexico wind tower facility and our Florida concrete pool plant are progressing well. Transportation products growth was driven by higher barge revenues and improved segment margin. the barge business continued to exhibit healthy demand with orders for both hopper and tank barges during the first quarter representing a 1.5 book to build. As previously announced, we closed 180 million acquisition of Ameron pole products on April 9th. In our press release yesterday, we provided increased revenue and adjusted EBITDA guidance for 2024, reflecting the addition of Ameron and better than expected first quarter results. Of note, The midpoint of our revised adjusted EBITDA guidance reflects a 23% increase over comparable results in 2023. I will provide more details in my comments about the outlook. Turning to slide eight. Investments both organic and inorganic across our portfolio have transformed the company and are contributing to our long-term growth. Today, we are less cyclical than in the past with construction products accounting for about 60% of our adjusted EBITDA nearly double the 33% it contributed in 2018. Moving to slide nine. The acquisition of Ameron is an excellent strategic fit for ARCOSA expanding our portfolio offerings in traffic and telecom structures and establishing our foothold in the attractive concrete and steel lighting pole market. Additionally, we expect it to be an important margin accretive contributor to engineer structures as well as ARCOSA overall. We have a proven track record of prudently deploying our capital at attractive valuations to drive sustainable long-term growth. Amer is another example of this discipline. In summary, we're pleased with our first quarter results and the progress on our strategic priorities as we continue to successfully grow our businesses. I will now turn over the call to Gail to discuss our financial results. Gail?