Integer Holdings Corporation

Thank you for standing by. My name is Kathleen and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the first quarter 2024 Integer Holdings Corporation earnings 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 call over to Anderson, Senior Vice President, Strategy, Business Development, and Investor Relations.

Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us and welcome to Integer's first quarter 2024 earnings conference call. With me today are Joe Dziedzic, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Dyron Smith, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. As a reminder, the results and the data we discussed today reflect the consolidated results of Integer for the periods indicated. During our call, we will discuss some non-GAAP financial measures. For reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measures, please refer to the appendix of today's presentation, today's earnings press release, and the trending schedules, which are available on our website at integer.net. Please note that today's presentation includes forward-looking statements. Please refer to the company's SEC filings for a discussion of the risk factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially. On today's call, Joe will provide his opening comments, and Dyron will then review our adjusted financial results for the first quarter of 2024 and provide an update on our full year 2024 outlook. Joe will come back to provide his closing remarks, and then we'll open up the call for questions. With that, I'll turn the call over to Joe.

Thank you, Andrew, and thank you to everyone for joining the call today. We appreciate the sell side analysts who have initiated coverage on Integer over the past year and welcome Kristen Stewart from CL King who initiated coverage of Integer last month. We had a strong start to 2024 with sales growing 10% year over year and adjusted operating income of 26% or 2.7 times the rate of sales growth compared to the first quarter of 2023. In addition, Our adjusted earnings per share grew 31% year-over-year, and gross margin expanded 120 basis points versus first quarter 2023, primarily due to the execution of our manufacturing excellence initiatives and an improved supply chain and direct labor environment. We are reiterating our full-year outlook. We continue to expect sales growth of 9 to 11% and adjusted operating income growth of 13 to 20% versus 2023. a strong year-over-year increase. We are also confirming 2024 adjusted earnings per share of $5.01 to $5.43 and free cash flow of $85 to $105 million. The strategy that we developed in 2017 and began implementing in 2018 is now producing sustained above-market sales growth and margin expansion. We also continue to manage our debt leverage within the range of 2.5% to three and a half times trailing four quarter adjusted EBITDA while executing our inorganic growth strategy. It is an exciting time at Integer because we have a strong pipeline of new products concentrated in faster growing end markets. Our margins are expanding as a result of our manufacturing excellence initiatives, and we continue to acquire and integrate tuck-in acquisitions that add or compound differentiated capabilities. I am grateful for our associates around the world that are delivering for our customers and making a difference for patients. I'll now turn the call over to Dyron.