L3Harris Technologies, Inc.

Greetings, and welcome to the L3Harris Technologies first quarter calendar year 2021 earnings call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A brief question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Rajiv Lawani, Vice President, Investor Relations. Thank you. You may begin.

Thank you, Rob. Good morning, and welcome to our first quarter 2021 earnings call. On the call with me today are Bill Brown, our CEO, Prisky Basic, our COO, and Jay Malave, our CFO. First, a few words on forward-looking statements and non-GAAP measures. Forward-looking statements involve risk, assumptions, and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. For more information, please see our press release, presentation, and SEC filings. A reconciliation of non-GAAP financial measures to comparable GAAP measures is included in the investor relations section of our website, which is l3harris.com, where a replay of this call will also be available. With that, Bill, I'll turn it over to you.

Thank you, Rajiv, and good morning, everyone. Earlier today, we reported strong first quarter results, building on last year's progress with solid execution across all financial metrics. Organic revenue is up approximately 2% with mid-single-digit growth in our core government businesses, partially offset by COVID-related impacts of about three points from our commercial businesses, consistent with our expectations. This should be the last quarter of tough compares due to the pandemic, which our team has managed incredibly well, and we anticipate more stability in the affected businesses ahead. Margins expand at a robust 140 basis points to 18.9%, resulting in earnings per share of $3.18, up 14%, and ahead of internal targets. Pre-cash flow of $630 million supported shareholder returns in excess of $900 million, including repurchases of $700 million from our recently authorized $6 billion program, with a balance from dividends following our 20% increase in March. Before handing over to Chris, With a transition occurring as planned on June 29th, this quarter marks my 38th and final earnings call leading Harris and an L3 Harris as CEO. It's been a rewarding nearly 10 years with the hard work and dedication of our employees. Harris grew from a small niche defense company to a leading mission solutions defense prime post the acquisition of Excellus and the merger with L3 with revenue today of over $18 billion. I'm especially proud of the people at L3Harris who work hard every single day to support our customers' critical missions and deliver value to shareholders. The performance culture and the work environment we've created is really special, and we recently were recognized for it by Fortune as the 100 best company to work for in 2021, and earlier this year as a world's most admired company. As you know, I'll continue as exec chair of the board for another year, working closely with Chris as he becomes CEO. Last week, the independent directors of the board unanimously endorsed the transition occurring as planned in the merger agreement, indicating their confidence and mine in Chris's ability to lead this company going forward. The results today speak to the momentum we have in the company and the strong foundation we've built for the future. And I'm excited and optimistic about what L3Harris can accomplish in its next phase under Chris's leadership. So with that, Chris, let me turn it over to you.