DuPont de Nemours, Inc.

Thank you for standing by. My name is Pam and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the DuPont third quarter 2024 earnings conference call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. 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, press star one again. Thank you. I would now like to turn the conference over to Chris McRae, Investor Relations. You may begin.

Good morning, and thank you for joining us for DuPont's third quarter 2024 financial results conference call. Joining me today are Ed Breen, Executive Chairman, Lori Koch, Chief Executive Officer, and Antonella Franzen, Chief Financial Officer. We've prepared slides to supplement our remarks, which are posted on DuPont's website under the Investor Relations tab and through the webcast link. Please read the forward-looking statement disclaimer contained in the slides. During this call, we'll make forward-looking statements regarding our expectations or predictions about the future. Because these statements are based on current assumptions and factors that involve risks and uncertainties, our actual performance results may differ materially from our forward-looking statements. Our Form 10-K, as updated by our current and periodic reports, includes detailed discussion of principal risks and uncertainties which may cause such differences. Unless otherwise specified, all historical financial measures presented today are on a continuing operations basis and exclude significant items. We will also refer to other non-GAAP measures. A reconciliation of the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure is included in our press release and presentation materials and have been posted to DuPont's Investor Relations website. I'll now turn the call over to Laurie who will begin.

Good morning, and thanks everyone for joining our third quarter call. Earlier today, we reported another strong quarter of financial performance with continued sequential improvement across all key financial metrics. We posted a solid quarter highlighted by year-over-year growth for consolidated net sales, operating EBITDA, and adjusted EPS. Third quarter sales of 3.2 billion included a return to organic sales growth, which increased 3% versus the year-ago period. Operating EBITDA of 857 million increased 11%, with operating EBITDA margin increasing 150 basis points to 26.8%. Third quarter adjusted EPS of $1.18 increased 28% year-over-year. We also delivered another strong quarter of cash generation with transaction-adjusted pre-cash flow conversion of 130%, highlighting our disciplined working capital management. For the full year 2024, we are raising our guidance for operating EBITDA and adjusted EPS, which Antonella will detail shortly. From an end market view, the electronics and industrial segment saw another quarter of double-digit sales growth in both the SEMI and EricssonX solutions lines of business, which continue to benefit from strong demand for advanced node chips and AI-enabling technology. In the water and protection segment, we saw better than expected sequential improvement in water, including continued stabilization in China volume. We also saw further sequential sales lift in medical packaging and markets, which are returning to more normalized buying patterns. Overall, I'm encouraged by our continued positive results. Volume recovery has been a key driver of our financial performance, coupled with our team's continued strong operational execution and helped by savings from the restructuring actions taken earlier this year. I am pleased to say we have made real progress with our operational excellence initiative, with benefits seen in improved margins and working capital and enhanced customer reliability metrics. By fostering our culture of continuous improvement and equipping our teams with the right tools and training, we are well positioned to unlock long-term value across each business line. Specific to the training aspect, We have been actively investing in our people and have completed around 30,000 hours of training year to date. We count on operational excellence to drive productivity every year as a key offset to inflation. Through focus on process optimization, we have successfully reduced costs across critical operations with benefits from increased uptime, leading to incremental capacity relief and lower fixed and variable costs. all in we are pleased to report a strong third quarter and are well positioned for a solid finish to the year i'll now turn the call over to ed who can provide a few comments around our progress on the planned separations on slide four thanks lori and good morning everyone we clearly remain focused on driving results and demonstrating the performance potential of our portfolio