Illinois Tool Works Inc.

Good morning. My name is Christy and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the 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 the pound key. For those participating in the Q&A, you will have the opportunity to ask one question and, if needed, one follow-up question. Thank you. Karen Fletcher, your Vice President of Investor Relations, you may begin your conference.

Thank you, Christy. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to ITW's first quarter 2021 conference call. I'm joined by our Chairman and CEO, Scott Santee, and Senior Vice President and CFO, Michael Larson. During today's call, we'll discuss ITW's first quarter financial results and update our guidance for full year 2021. Slide 2 is a reminder that this presentation contains forward-looking statements. We refer you to the company's 2020 Form 10-K for more detail about important risks that could cause actual results to differ materially from our expectations. This presentation uses certain non-GAAP measures, and a reconciliation of those measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures is contained in the press release. Please turn to slide three, and it's now my pleasure to turn the call over to our Chairman and CEO, Scott Santee.

Thanks, Karen. Good morning, everyone. In Q1, we saw continued improvement in both the breadth and pace of the recovery, with six of our seven segments delivering strong growth in the quarter. with revenue increases at the segment level ranging from 6 to 13%, and that's with one less shipping day in Q1 of this year versus last year. At the enterprise level, organic growth was plus 6 in Q1 or plus 8 on an equal days basis, and that was despite the fact that our food equipment segment was still down 10% in the quarter. The fundamental strength of our 80-20 front-to-back business system and the skill and dedication of our people around the world combined with the recovery actions that we initiated over the course of the past year allowed us to meet our customers' increasing needs while at the same time delivering strong profitability leverage as evidenced by our 19% earnings growth, 45% incremental margins, and 120 basis points of margin benefits from our enterprise initiatives in the quarter. Despite rising raw material costs, and a tight supply chain environment, we maintained our world-class service levels to our customers while also establishing several all-time Q1 performance records for the company, including earnings per share of 211, operating income of $905 million, and an operating margin of 25.5%. Based on our first quarter results and our normal practice of projecting current demand rates through the balance of the year, We are adjusting our 2021 guidance. For the full year, we now expect organic growth of 10% to 12% operating margin in the range of 25% to 26%, an EPS of 820 to 860 per share, which at the 840 midpoint represents 27% earnings growth versus last year. At the midpoint of our revised guidance, 2021 full-year revenues would be up 1% versus 2019, and EPS would be up 9%. Now, stating the obvious, there's still a lot of ground to cover between now and the end of the year, and the near-term environment is certainly not without its challenges. That being said, I have no doubt that we are well-positioned to respond to whatever comes our way as we move through the remainder of the year. and to continue to deliver differentiated performance in 2021 and beyond. And with that, I'll turn the call over to Michael to provide more detail on the quarter and our updated guidance. Michael?