Comfort Systems USA, Inc.

Good day, and thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Q4 2023 Comfort Systems USA 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, Julie Schaaf, Chief Accounting Officer. Please go ahead.

Thanks, Justin. Good morning. Welcome to Comfort Systems USA's fourth quarter and full year 2023 earnings call. Our comments today, as well as our press releases, contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the applicable securities laws and regulations. What we will say today is based on the current plans and expectations of Comfort Systems USA. Those plans and expectations include risks and uncertainties that might cause actual future activities and results of our operations to be materially different from those set forth in our comments. You can read a detailed listing and commentary concerning our specific risk factors in our most recent Form 10-K, as well as in our press release covering these earnings. A slide presentation has been provided as a companion to our remarks. The presentation is posted on the investor relations section of the company's website, found at ComfortSystemsUSA.com. Joining me on the call today are Brian Lane, President and Chief Executive Officer, Trent McKenna, Chief Operating Officer, and Bill George, Chief Financial Officer. Brian will open our remarks.

All right. Thank you, Julie. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us on the call today. Our teams achieved an amazing finish to 2023, with exceptional results including unprecedented growth, earnings, and cash flow, as well as a surge in new bookings. We earned $2.55 per share this quarter compared to $1.54 a year ago. Current quarter revenue was $1.4 billion, with same-store growth of 18%. During the fourth quarter, Both our mechanical and electrical businesses grew and increased margins to drive our annual results to new heights. Construction finished an already strong year on an up note, including notable profit and activity increases in our modular business. Service also continued to grow as we continue to benefit from ongoing service investments. Backlog is $5.2 billion up by more than one billion dollars from last year and we had a remarkable sequential increase of 870 million even with strong revenue demand remains supportive and is especially robust in our industrial sector we are carefully selecting work that has good margins and good working conditions for our valuable workforce cash flow for the quarter was superb at 149 million and we finished 2023 with an extraordinary $550 million in free cash flow. Earlier this month, we closed two acquisitions, Summit Industrial and J&S Mechanical. Summit is a specialty industrial mechanical contractor serving the advanced technology, power, and industrial sectors. Summit performs off-site and site-based construction, including process piping, equipment setting, and large pipe rack trestles. Summit is a trusted supplier to some of the world's largest advanced technology, power, and industrial companies and is currently deployed on several major chip fabrication projects. J&S provides mechanical construction services to commercial and industrial sectors across the Mountain West region of the United States and works on many of the largest and most technical construction projects in their area. We are thrilled to have both of these companies as part of the Comfort Systems USA family. Welcome. I will discuss our business and outlook in a few minutes, but first I will turn this call over to Bill to review our financial performance. Bill? Thanks, Brian. Good morning, everyone.