American Eagle Outfitters, Inc.

Good morning, everyone. Today we are hosting an extended earnings call to discuss our fourth quarter and fiscal 2023 financial results, as well as our new powering profitable growth strategy and three-year financial targets. The call will include prepared remarks from Jay Schottenstein, Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Jen Foyle, President, Executive Creative Director for AE and Aerie, and Mike Mathias, Chief Financial Officer. This will be followed by a question and answer session. We expect to conclude the call at approximately 1 o'clock. Before we begin, I would like to refer you to our Safe Harbor Statement and additional disclosures around non-GAAP results posted on screen. Reconciliations of adjusted results to the GAAP results are available in the tables attached to the earnings release, which is posted on our corporate website at www.aeo-inc.com in the investor relations section. Following today's call, this is also where you will find a replay and our fourth quarter investor and powering profitable growth strategy presentations. Now I will turn the call over to Jay to kick it off with a quick review of key highlights of our fourth quarter and fiscal 2023 results. Jay?

Good morning. Thanks for joining us. Earlier today, we unveiled our new long-term strategy and financial roadmap. Our focus is simple, powering profitable growth. We are excited to share the details of our plan with you. But first, let me begin with a quick overview of last year. I'll start with a huge thanks to our teams for the perseverance and commitment throughout 2023. I'm especially proud of the strength we delivered in the second half of the year, as we began to implement actions from our profit improvement project. Building on momentum in the third quarter, we achieved record fourth quarter revenue and adjusted operating income reached the highest in over a decade. With strong execution, we nicely exceeded expectations, even after raising guidance in early January. While Mike will provide greater details, during the fourth quarter, we took a non-GAAP charge as we looked to strengthen overall profitability. Our 2023 revenue reached a record $5.3 billion, and we registered $375 million of adjusted operating income. With the exception of 2021, this was our highest adjusted operating income result since 2012. We generated strong cash flow and we ended the year in a very healthy financial position. Cash and investments more than doubled from last year, reaching $454 million at year end. We exited 2023 with clean inventory, well positioned for our go-forward plans. Reflecting improved financial performance and a healthy balance sheet, in December, we announced a 25% increase in our quarterly cash dividend, and in February, we authorized 30 million shares for repurchase. This underscores our confidence in the strength of the business and our commitment to returning cash to shareholders. We enter 2024 well-positioned with industry-leading brands, a solid balance sheet, and best-in-class operations. Our profit improvement initiatives are taking hold, and we expect to deliver nice revenue and profit growth in 2024, which Mike will detail shortly. We remain steadfast in operating the business with balance, staying agile and flexible to capitalize on demand opportunities, while optimizing profitability for the foreseeable future. With that, I will pass it over to Jen for some brief merchandise and marketing highlights of the fourth quarter.

Thanks, Jay, and good morning, everyone. I'm very proud of our fourth quarter performance. We saw sequential improvement across brands and channels, and we achieved record revenue for both AE and Aerie. Merchandise margins were strong, driven by inventory discipline and favorable product costs. We brought excitement with newness, including a fresh take on some tried-and-true classics. Collections were on trend, including an amazing array of gifting options that did very well over the holiday season. As I will review in today's strategy presentation, we saw early results from a number of new brand initiatives. Strong product, engaging marketing, and an unparalleled shopping experience is delivering customer growth. In fact, at over 22 million, our total customer count expanded across brands, reaching an all-time high. Now, some brand highlights. American Eagle revenue grew 11%, fueled by a 6% increase in comps. The extra week contributed approximately four points to brand revenue. Strength was broad-based across jeans, pants, tops, sweaters, and outerwear. Women's outperformed men's, yet both saw meaningful sequential improvement. The AE brand operating margin expanded 100 basis points to 17%. As we have turned our attention to driving growth at AE, we are placing a renewed emphasis on top sellers and expanding availability across the store base. Our new store design is showing nice results, providing a positive lift to comps. I'll talk more about these initiatives later. However, we are incredibly pleased with the early results. They provide a strong proof point of our strategy to deliver profitable growth, which we are excited to share with you later today. Now turning to Aerie, revenue grew 16% with comps increasing 13%, locking in yet another record fourth quarter. The extra week contributed approximately four points to brand revenue. Growth was led by soft apparel and our flourishing offline activewear business, both of which posted double-digit growth. Aries operating margin of 16.2% hit an all-time fourth quarter high. This is a 400 basis point expansion to last year as the brand continued to scale. We also saw improved markup and lower markdowns. New stores are providing a tailwind to comp growth as they enter the comp base and are boosting margins as they ramp up through the maturity curve. All in all, we had a very successful holiday season and fourth quarter across our brands. I'd like to thank our amazing teams for their hard work, talent, and commitment. We made tremendous progress throughout the year, and I look ahead. I'm very optimistic as we build on positive momentum. I look forward to sharing our go-forward plans in a little bit. And now I'll turn the call over to Mike to review the rest of our financial results.