Martin Marietta Materials, Inc.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Martin Marietta's fourth quarter and full year 2019 earnings conference call. All participants are currently in a listen-only mode. A question-answer session will follow the company's prepared remarks. As a reminder, today's call is being recorded. I will now turn the call over to your host, Ms. Suzanne Osberg, Vice President of Investor Relations for Martin Marietta. Ms. Osberg, you may begin.

Good morning and thank you for joining Martin Marietta's fourth quarter and full year 2019 earnings call. With me today are Ward Nye, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and Jim Nicholas, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. To facilitate today's call, we have made available during this webcast and on the investor relations section of our website, 2019 supplemental information that summarizes our financial results and trends. As detailed on slide two, This conference call may include forward-looking statements as defined by securities laws in connection with future events, future operating results, or financial performance. Like other businesses, we are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. Except as legally required, we undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements whether resulting from new information, future developments, or otherwise. We refer you to the legal disclaimers contained in today's earnings release and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which are available on both our own and the SEC websites. Unless otherwise noted, all financial and operating results discussed today are for the full year 2019. Any comparisons are versus the prior year. Furthermore, non-GAAP measures are defined and reconciled to the nearest GAAP measure in our 2019 supplemental information and SEC filings. We will begin today's earnings call with Ward 9, who initially will discuss our full year operating performance. Jim Nicholas will then review our 2019 financial results, after which Ward will discuss market trends and 2020 expectations. A question and answer session will follow. I will now turn the call over to Ward.

Thank you, Suzanne, and thank you all for joining today's teleconference. Martin Marietta marked 25 years as a public company in 2019. Throughout our history, we positioned our business to outperform through the disciplined execution of a proven strategy, and our team shared commitment to the world-class attributes of our business, including safety, ethics, cost discipline, and operational excellence. Today's reported results clearly validate the importance of these strategic priorities. As Suzanne noted, today's discussion will appropriately focus on full-year results. However, as you read in our earnings release, we reported a much improved year-over-year fourth quarter that capped off a 12-month period of record-setting financial performance. In 2019, we once again established new records for revenues, profits, and adjusted EBITDA from improved shipments, pricing, and cost management across most of our building materials business. For the year, consolidated total revenues increased 12% to $4.7 billion. Consolidated gross profit increased 22% to $1.2 billion. Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, depletion, and amortization, or adjusted EBITDA, increased 15% to nearly $1.3 billion, and diluted earnings per share was $9.74, a 31% improvement. Our 2019 results marked the eighth consecutive year of growth in these financial metrics. Martin Marietta's ability to repeatedly translate revenue growth into increased profitability has been and continues to be a differentiator. Our strong earnings growth drove a total shareholder return of 64% in 2019, more than double the S&P 500, and strong outperformance relative to most of our sector. For those who have long followed Martin Marietta, you know our passion is operating our business safely. Safety is the core principle and the foundation of our strong financial performance. We're proud to have achieved world-class lost-time instant rate levels company-wide for the third consecutive year. Additionally, we've meaningfully improved safety performance at our legacy bluegrass materials operations acquired in 2018, our company's second-largest acquisition. From the boardroom to site operations, our teams have embraced our guardian angel and wingman-branded safety culture. This continued commitment has elevated safety awareness across the company, reducing downtime from workplace incidents and leading to higher revenues and profitability. Most importantly, working safely protects our employees and the more than 400 communities in which we live and work. Now let's take a deeper dive into the full-year operating performance for each of our product offerings. Aggregate shipments increased 12%, to 191 million tons, exceeding our original 2019 guidance for volume growth of 6 to 8 percent. These shipment levels benefited from solid underlying product demand, together with carryover work from an extraordinarily wet 2018. Notably, for the first time in four years, aggregate shipments to all three primary end-use markets increased, reflecting improved strength in public and private sector spending in our markets. Aggregate pricing improved 4 percent in line with our expectations. Importantly, all divisions contributed to this solid growth, a testament to the strength of our markets and the disciplined execution of our locally driven pricing strategy. We expect these dynamics, combined with recent positive industry trends, to support ongoing pricing momentum. Our cement operations established new four-year records for volumes and gross profits Shipments increased 10 percent to nearly 3.9 million tons, driven by robust Texas demand, 2018 weather-deferred projects, and an expanded distribution terminal footprint. Cement pricing improved 3 percent, consistent with our expectations. We expect our cement operations will continue to benefit from tight supply and healthy demand in Texas, supported by growing customer backlogs and our April 2020 price increases. Now, turning to our downstream businesses, despite solid fourth-quarter volume improvement, our full-year ready-mix concrete shipments decreased 2 percent. Our Southwest and Rocky Mountain divisions were unable to completely overcome weather challenges that intermittently hindered construction activity throughout the year. Average selling price increased modestly with solid gains in Colorado, partially offset by strategic customer segmentation that limited pricing improvements in Texas. Our Colorado asphalt and paving business enjoyed strong customer backlogs, a notable portion of which have been deferred into 2020. That said, shipments and pricing improved 7.5 percent and nearly 4 percent, respectively. Now, I'll turn the call over to Jim to discuss more specifically our full-year financial results. Jim?