Brady Corporation

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to Q4 2022 Brady Corporation Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are on a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there'll be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you'll need to press star 11 on your telephone. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I'd now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Anne Thornton. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Good morning and welcome to the Brady Corporation Fiscal 22 Fourth Quarter Earnings Conference Call. The slides for this morning's call are located on our website at www.bradycorp.com slash investors. We will begin our prepared remarks on slide number three. Please note that during this call we may make comments about forward looking information. Words such as expect, will, may, believe, forecast, and anticipate are just a few examples of words identifying a forward looking statement. It's important to note that forward-looking information is subject to various risk factors and uncertainties, which could significantly impact expected results. Risk factors were noted in our news release and in Brady's Fiscal 22 Form 10-K, which was filed with the SEC this morning. Also, please note that this teleconference is copyrighted by Brady Corporation and may not be rebroadcast without the consent of Brady. We will be recording this call and broadcasting it on the internet. AS SUCH, YOUR PARTICIPATION IN THE Q&A SESSION WILL CONSTITUTE YOUR CONSENT TO BEING RECORDED. I'LL NOW TURN THE CALL OVER TO BRADY'S PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, RUSSELL SCHELLER. RUSSELL?

THANK YOU, ANNE. GOOD MORNING, EVERYONE, AND THANK YOU FOR JOINING US. THIS MORNING WE RELEASED OUR FISCAL 2022 FOURTH QUARTER FINANCIAL RESULTS, WHICH WAS ANOTHER QUARTER OF STRONG ORGANIC SALES GROWTH AND RECORD EARNINGS PER SHARE. I'M PROUD OF HOW The entire Brady team worked through this challenging macro environment, all the while delivering for both our customers and our shareholders. Organic sales grew 9% this quarter. We increased GAAP earnings per share by 53%, and we increased non-GAAP earnings per share by 16%. This quarter was a great end to an outstanding year. Our full-year GAAP EPS of $290,000 was an all-time record high, and our non-GAAP EPS of 315 was also an all-time record high. For the full year, we grew organic sales by 9.4%, which was our highest organic growth rate in more than two decades. We performed well in our ID solutions business and made nice progress moving a portion of our portfolio into faster-growing end markets with cyclical tailwinds. We also finished the year with positive momentum in our WPS business, where segment profit increased to 13.2% of sales in Q4. This is a great improvement over the first half of our fiscal year. And we returned more than $155 million to our shareholders in the form of dividends and buybacks, and we still finished the year in a net cash position. We're proud of what we've accomplished at Brady. We've had strong organic sales growth over the last several years, and we now have businesses that are growing in excess of GDP. With innovative new products and highly engaged professionals, it should enable us to continue to grow in excess of GDP for years to come. As we look ahead, our priorities remain clear. First and foremost is to continue our evolution into a faster-growing company. We are definitely on track to achieve this goal. Second is to improve our capabilities to enable our customers' automation initiatives. where we believe there will be a tailwind for years to come. Third is to take necessary pricing and efficiency actions to offset the impact of this inflationary environment, all while ensuring that we have the products available to meet customer demands and that we're providing the best possible customer service. And finally, to effectively deploy our capital in order to drive long-term shareholder value which would include organic investments, acquisitions, and returning funds to our shareholders. We demonstrated our commitment to returning funds to our shareholders this year as we repurchased more than 4.4% of our total diluted share count. And yesterday, we announced an increase to our dividend, which represents the 37th consecutive year of dividend increases. As you can see from our guidance, we expect fiscal 2023 to be another all-time record earnings per share year for Brady, and we're confident that we have the positive momentum to make this happen. Of course, what we can't control is the global economy. Much like many of you, we also have concerns about headwinds. From energy prices in Europe to the highest U.S. inflation in 40 years, we are definitely living in challenging times. Although I can't tell you where the economy is headed, I can assure you that Brady is well-positioned to adapt to economic uncertainties. I'll now turn the call over to Aaron to provide more details on our financial results. Then I'll return to provide specific commentary about our identification solutions and workplace safety businesses.