Hubbell Inc

Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the fourth quarter 2024 Hubble Earnings Conference call. At this time, all participants are on 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 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 1-1 again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Dan Inamorato. Please go ahead.

Thanks, Operator. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. Earlier this morning, we issued a press release announcing our results for the fourth quarter of 2024. The press release and slides are posted to the investor section of our website at hubble.com. Joined today are our Chairman, President, and CEO, Gervin Bakker, and our Executive Vice President and CFO, Bill Sperry. Please note our comments this morning may include statements related to the expected future results of our company, and our forward-looking statements as defined by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Please note the discussion of forward-looking statements in our press release and consider it incorporated by reference into this call. Additionally, comments may also include non-GAAP financial measures. Those measures are reconciled to the comparable GAAP measures and are included in the press release and slides. Now let me turn the call over to Gerben.

Great. Good morning, and thank you for joining us to discuss Hubbell's fourth quarter and full year 2024 results. Hubbell delivered strong double-digit growth in adjusted operating profit, adjusted earnings per share, and free cash flow in the quarter. While organic volumes were below our expectations, strong execution drove year-over-year adjusted operating margin expansion of 240 basis points. On a full-year basis, we achieved mid-single-digit sales growth, 9% adjusted operating profit growth, 90 basis points of adjusted operating margin expansion, and double-digit growth in pre-cash flow. 2024 adjusted earnings per share of 1657 was above the high end of our initial guidance range, as well as our latest outlook we provided in October. We achieved this strong full-year performance despite having to navigate pockets of significant challenges in telecom markets and utility customer destocking, as we executed effectively throughout the year on four key levers within our control. The first of these levers is that we made significant progress in 2024 on our strategy to unify our electrical solution segment. We generated above-market growth in attractive verticals with an integrated solutions-oriented service model for our customers, while at the same time driving business simplification and operational efficiencies to expand margins. These efforts resulted in double-digit adjusted operating profit growth in 2024 despite absorbing the impact of the residential lighting divestiture. Second, we effectively captured opportunities from secular growth trends across our utility and electrical markets, most notably driving double-digit growth in transmission and substation markets in front of the meter, as well as renewables and data center balance of system solutions behind the meter. Third, we proactively manage price-cost productivity in 2024. Price realization remains favorable across both segments. We are delivering on accelerated productivity plans in our factories and supply chain, and we actively manage our cost structure and discretionary spending. And fourth, our strong balance sheet and differentiated capital deployment strategy contributed significantly to our success. primarily through the acquisition and successful integration of systems control. As we look ahead, we expect that the temporary headwinds we faced in 2024 will fade going forward, while each of the levers that we have driven our success in 2024 and prior years remain intact for 2025 and beyond. We are introducing our full year 2025 outlook this morning, which anticipates mid-single-digit organic growth with continued margin expansion and attractive growth in operating profit, earnings per share, and free cash flow. This outlook is consistent with our long-term financial framework and demonstrates Hubbell's confidence in our ability to continue compounding off of a strong multi-year base of performance. I will share more details on the outlook at the end of this call, But first, let me turn it over to Bill to provide you with some more details on our performance in the quarter.