Brady Corporation

Good day and welcome to the Brady Corporation fourth quarter 2023 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star 11 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star 11 again. please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Anne Thornton, Chief Financial Officer. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Good morning and welcome to the Brady Corporation Fiscal 2023 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 this morning and in Brady's fiscal 2023 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 Schaller. Russell?

Thank you, Anne, and thank you for joining us today. We released our fiscal 2023 fourth quarter results this morning, which represented another company record earnings per share result. Organic sales growth grew 6.9% this quarter due to strong results throughout our global business. We increased our GAAP earnings per share 23.5% and we grew our non-GAAP earnings per share by 19.5%. This quarter represented an excellent finish to another great year. Our full year 2023 GAAP EPS of 351 was another all-time record high following two consecutive years of all-time record EPS. Our non-GAAP EPS of 364 was also an all-time record high. This year we grew organic sales 5.5% with growth driven by both regions throughout all of our major businesses. And we returned $120 million to our shareholders through dividends and share buybacks while still finishing the year in a net cash position. I'm proud of our results this year. This is a direct result of the hard work and dedication of the entire company. We continue to improve profitability while increasing our investment in R&D, expanding our sales force, and investing in our digital capabilities. Our focus on new products and sales generating investments positions us to continue to generate consistent organic sales growth into the future. Our cash generation this quarter was excellent with operating cash flow of 161% of net income and free cash flow of 148% of net income. Our priorities for the next year are consistent, which are to generate top line growth in excess of GDP and continue our evolution into a faster growing company, To develop our product offering to support our customers' automation initiatives, which we believe is a growth opportunity for years to come. To execute operational effectiveness opportunities to ensure we continue to improve profitability as we grow. To effectively deploy our capital in order to drive long-term shareholder value, which includes organic investments, acquisitions, and returning funds to our shareholders through dividends and share buybacks. We demonstrated our commitment to returning funds to our shareholders this year, as we repurchased more than 3% of our diluted share count by nearly exhausting our existing buyback authorization. And we announced the new 100 million share back buyback authorization. And yesterday we announced an increase in our dividend, which represents the 38th consecutive year of annual dividend increases. We're committed to consistently return cash to our shareholders while delivering a strong shareholder return. I'll now turn the call over to Ann to provide more details on our financial results. Ann?