Atkore Inc.

I would like to welcome everyone to ADCOR's third quarter fiscal year 2024 earnings conference call. All lines have been placed in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question again, press star one. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. Thank you. I would now like to turn the conference over to your host, Matt Lang. Fast forward. Vice President of Treasury and Federal Relations. Thank you. You may begin, sir.

Thank you, and good morning, everyone. I'm joined today by Bill Waltz, President and CEO, as well as David Johnson, Chief Financial Officer. We will take your questions after comments by Bill and David. I would like to remind everyone that during this call, we may make projections or forward-looking statements regarding future events or financial performance of the company. Such statements involve risks and uncertainties such that actual results may differ materially. Please refer to our SEC filings and today's press release, which identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in our projections or forward-looking statements. In addition, any reference in our discussion today to EBITDA means adjusted EBITDA. and any reference to EPS or adjusted EPS means adjusted diluted earnings per share. Adjusted EBITDA and adjusted diluted earnings per share are non-GAAP measures. Reconciliations of non-GAAP measures and a presentation of the most comparable GAAP measures are available in the appendix to today's presentation. With that, I'll turn it over to Bill.

Thanks, Matt, and good morning, everyone. Starting on slide three, in the third quarter, organic volume was essentially flat year over year. We saw strength in our construction services business due to large mega projects and from solar due to increased production in our Hobart, Indiana facility. These gains were offset by broad pricing softness across most of the electrical business. we did not see a noticeable summer construction uptick in demand as is generally the case. Pricing was softer than expected due to the slower end markets, particularly for our PVC conduit business and higher concentration of large projects where pricing tends to be more competitive. Overall, selling prices were also down 4% sequentially from the second quarter. volume grew 8% sequentially and 4% year to date. The third quarter proved to be more challenging than we initially projected. While our net sales were within the range of the outlook we presented back in May, adjusted EBITDA and adjusted diluted EPS were both off the midpoint by 4%. Our lower than projected EBITDA was due to overall softer than expected market conditions. We believe the current market is flat to slightly lower than last year. However, this trend varies by major business. Another challenge we are facing is an increasing amount of imported steel conduit coming primarily from Mexico. There are currently provisions in place between both countries that are meant to limit the amount of steel conduit imports. The statistics reveal the amount of conduit shipped from Mexico into the United States far exceeds these negotiated limits. This reality has been acknowledged by others within the industry, prompting a call to action. These increased amounts of foreign steel conduit negatively impact our volume year over year, while the overall market inclusive of imports has grown year over year. We also continue to experience softness in the telecom and the utility markets. Despite the challenges we are facing in the market, we are progressing well in our own operations and are confident in our long-term opportunities. We are pleased to share that our production and shipments of solar torque tubes at our Hobart, Indiana facility improved meaningfully from the second quarter to the third quarter. We continued executing our capital deployment strategy during the quarter by repurchasing $125 million in shares, bringing our year-to-date total for shares repurchased to more than $280 million. On that note, I want to remind everyone that as we near the end of our previously approved multi-year $1.3 billion share repurchase authorization, our Board of Directors authorized a new $500 million buyback program in May, which will be available upon the completion of our existing plan. This new authorization is consistent with our commitment to returning capital to shareholders and reflects the Board's continued confidence in the compelling value of ACOR shares. In light of the challenging market environment, we are adjusting the midpoint of our fourth quarter EBITDA outlook. However, we remain confident in the long-term opportunities for our diversified product portfolio. Overall, our broad product portfolio provides essential elements for nearly all types of construction. especially those that support secular trends including solar power, data centers, artificial intelligence, infrastructure digitization, grid hardening, and support for the energy transition. The breadth of our product portfolio enables Accor to be resilient to changing and market demand while remaining a supplier's voice across our channel partners. With that, I'll turn the call over to David to talk through the results from this quarter.