Belden Inc

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to this morning's Belden Reports third quarter 2025 results call. Just a reminder, this call is being recorded. At this time, you are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your touchtone phone. If you are in the question queue and would like to withdraw your question, please press star two. I would now like to turn the call over to Aaron Reddington, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for Belden's third quarter 2025 earnings conference call. With me today are Belden's President and CEO, Ashish Chand, and Senior Vice President and CFO, Jeremy Parks. Ashish will provide a strategic overview of our business, and then Jeremy will provide a detailed review of our financial and operating results, followed by Q&A. We issued our earnings release earlier this morning and have prepared a slide presentation that we will reference on this call. The press release, presentation, and transcript of these prepared remarks are currently available online at investor.belden.com. Turning to slide two, I'd like to remind everyone that today's call will include forward-looking statements which are subject to risks and uncertainties as detailed in our press release and most recent Form 10-K. We will also reference and messages for the third quarter. My comments today will reference adjusted results. 2025 Earnings Conference Call. With me today are Belden's President and CEO, Ashish Chand, and Senior Vice President and CFO, Jeremy Parks. Ashish will provide a strategic overview of our business, and then Jeremy will provide a detailed review of our financial and operating results, followed by Q&A. We issued our earnings release earlier this morning and have prepared a slide presentation that we will reference on this call. The press release, presentation, and transcript of these prepared remarks are currently available online at investor.belden.com. Turning to slide two, I'd like to remind everyone that today's call will include forward-looking statements which are subject to risks and uncertainties as detailed in our press release and most recent Form 10-K. We will also reference certain non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP measures can be found in the appendix to our presentation and on our website. I will now turn the call over to our President and CEO, Ashish Chand.

Thank you, Aaron, and good morning, everyone. We appreciate you joining us. Let's begin with slide four, which highlights our key accomplishments and messages for the third quarter. My comments today will reference adjusted results. First, I want to recognize the dedicated efforts of our team. Their focus enabled us to deliver another solid quarter, building on our steady momentum. We executed well, delivering record results that surpassed our expectations. For the third quarter, Both revenue and earnings per share came in above the high end of our guidance, reaching new quarterly records for Belden. This achievement underscores the ongoing progress of a solutions transformation, which continues to expand across the organization. Revenue reached $698 million, up 7% year-over-year, and adjusted earnings per share grew to $1.97. We delivered continued organic growth, with overall organic revenue up 4% for the quarter. Positive contributions came from key markets, including Germany and China, confirming the favorable turn we experienced earlier this year in these major automation markets. This trend was further validated in our automation solution segment, which demonstrated particular strength, achieving 10% organic revenue growth driven by broad momentum, including double-digit gains in discrete manufacturing. Order activity remained healthy for the quarter, with orders up 7% year-over-year. We ended the quarter with a book-to-bill ratio of 1.0 compared to 0.99 in the prior year period, positioning us well as we look ahead. Despite headwinds from tariffs and copper pass-throughs, Our margins for the period performed well. We achieved healthy, adjusted gross margins of 38.2% of 40 basis points year-over-year, reflecting continued strength in our solutions offering, even with the impact of these pass-throughs. Our business continues to generate healthy cash flow, with trailing 12-month free cash flow at $214 million. We maintained our disciplined capital deployment, repurchasing approximately 400,000 shares in the third quarter for $50 million, bringing our air-to-date total to 1.4 million shares for $150 million. Overall, this was a quarter of solid execution, and I'm pleased with our record performance. The progress we are making with our solutions transformation is clear in our results, and we are well-positioned to build on this momentum going forward. Now, please turn to slide five. I'd like to highlight another key event this quarter that demonstrates the power of a solution strategy and our ability to drive digital transformation in critical infrastructure. We recently secured a $14 million multi-year solutions award with a leading utility provider to modernize their communications infrastructure, a key element of their operational technology platform. This project involves replacing aging legacy systems with a future-ready network to support mission-critical applications. The challenge for this utility was to transition from outdated systems to a modern packet-based network that could meet stringent demands for reliability, security, and low latency, essential for grid resiliency and efficiency. Leveraging a deep vertical market knowledge and solutions approach, our team collaborated with the customer, culminating in a successful on-site proof of concept. This POC effectively showcased Belden's advanced technologies and service capabilities, validating our proposed solution. Our Extran platform was selected as the core of this modernization effort. Purpose-built for utility networks, Extran delivers connectivity to large, complex networks that include new and legacy systems and protocols. This hybrid capability is crucial for easing migration and future-proofing critical network infrastructure. This win underscores Belden's deep expertise in utility networks and our proven capability to deliver secure, resilient OD communication systems. Our end-to-end delivery model, including products, services, and support, ensures seamless implementation and solution delivery. This project is a clear testament to how our solutions-driven approach, combined with a specialized portfolio and deep market understanding, allows us to capture opportunities in vital sectors. We are establishing a repeatable model for similar large-scale modernization projects within the utility market, further solidifying our position as a trusted partner in critical infrastructure. We are confident in the momentum this creates and the long-term value we provide for our customers. Now please turn to slide six. I'd like to shift our focus to an area where Belden is making strategic advancements, positioning us well for the next wave of industrial innovation, physical AI. Earlier this week, we announced a collaboration with Accenture and Nvidia. This partnership combines our industrial networking expertise with their advanced AI capabilities to deliver integrated physical AI solutions. We've already secured commercial traction with an initial pilot program and are scheduled for commercial deployment later this year. This pilot, a virtual safety fence solution designed to improve worker safety in manufacturing environments, was successfully tested and is now being commercially deployed at a major US manufacturer. This test and commercial deployment demonstrate the real-world impact and market readiness of our physical AI solutions. as modern manufacturing increasingly integrates autonomous systems alongside human operators. Let's take a moment and consider the broader opportunity in this emerging space. First, physical AI represents an evolution in automation where AI directly interacts with the physical world. It enables intelligent automation and real-time decision-making, offering massive opportunities to improve safety, efficiency, and further digitize industrial environments. Belden is uniquely positioned to play a foundational role in the emerging world of physical AI. Advanced applications demand an industrial-grade network capable of real-time synchronized precision. Our time-sensitive networking capabilities are crucial, enabling microsecond precision for data streams essential in environments where safety and quality are critical. This strategic push underscores Belden's successful evolution into a solutions company within the industrial market. It serves as clear proof that we are moving beyond simply providing connectivity products to enabling advanced solutions that drive significant value for our customers. Given our strengths in intelligent edge deployment in converging ITOD environments, we believe that Belden is well positioned to be a key enabler of physical AI in manufacturing and material handling, driving safer, smarter, and more productive environments globally. Physical AI represents an emerging growth opportunity for our business as we continue to advance ideas and technologies. I will now request Jeremy to provide additional insight into our third quarter financial performance.