MUELLER WATER PRODUCTS

and thank you for standing by. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. During today's Q&A session, if you'd like to ask a question, please press star then 1. Today's call is also being recorded. If you have any objections, you may disconnect at this time. I would now like to turn today's meeting over to your host, Mr. Whit Kincaid. Thank you. You may begin.

Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us on Muir Water Products' third quarter conference call. Yesterday afternoon, we issued our press release reporting results of operations for the quarter ended June 30th, 2024. Copies of the press release are available on our website, newerwaterproducts.com. I'm joined this morning by Marty Zakis, our Chief Executive Officer, Paul McAndrew, our President and Chief Operating Officer, and Steve Heinrichs, our Chief Financial Officer and Chief Legal Officer. Following our prepared remarks, we will address questions related to the information covered on the call. As a reminder, please keep to one question and a follow-up and then return to the queue. This morning's call is being recorded and webcast live on the Internet. We have also posted slides on our website to accompany today's discussion. They also address forward-looking statements and our non-GAAP disclosure requirements. At this time, please refer to slide two. This slide identifies non-GAAP financial measures referenced in our press release, on our slides, and on this call. It discloses the reasons why we believe that these measures provide useful information to investors. Reconciliations between non-GAAP and GAAP financial measures are included in the supplemental information within our press release and on our website. Slide 3 addresses forward-looking statements made on this call. This slide includes cautionary information identifying important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those included in forward-looking statements. Please review slides two and three in their entirety. During this call, all references to a specific year or quarter, unless specified otherwise, refer to our fiscal year, which ends the 30th of September. A replay of this morning's call will be available for 30 days at 1-800 The archived webcast and corresponding slides will be available for at least 90 days on the investor relations section of our website. I'll now turn the call over to Marty.

Thanks, Whit. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining our earnings call. I'll start with a brief overview of our third quarter results. I am pleased with our performance this quarter as we reported record quarterly results that exceeded our expectations. We achieved record quarterly net sales with 9.2% year-over-year growth with healthy order levels during the quarter supported by steady end market demand. Our commercial and operational teams overall executed at a high level including delivering benefits from manufacturing and supply chain efficiencies. Thanks to their great work, we delivered our second consecutive quarter with a gross margin above 36% and a 620 basis points year-over-year improvement. During the quarter, we continued to maintain our disciplined approach to SG&A spending. This discipline, along with a record quarter for net sales and a strong gross margin, resulted in record-adjusted EBITDA of approximately $85 million, which represents an increase of nearly 57% compared with the prior year. We also achieved record quarterly adjusted net income per diluted share of 32 cents, an increase of around 78% compared to the prior year quarter. In addition to driving efficiencies to expand gross margins, our teams are focused on growing free cash flow through working capital improvements with disciplined capital spending. They also continue to look for opportunities to invest in our business to drive organic growth in sales, margins, and cash flow. As a result, we increased our year-to-date free cash flow more than $100 million compared with the prior year period. I am highly encouraged by the progress our teams have achieved this year based on their unrelenting focus on customer service and operational efficiency. Our teams continue to perform at an improving level while controlling costs and driving manufacturing, material, and freight efficiencies. These results include strong performance at both our iron gate valve and hydrant manufacturing facilities. The improvement in our margins, which are above pre-pandemic highs, is a testament to the operational progress we've made to date. Our gross margin for the latest 12 months is above 34%, and our adjusted EBITDA for the latest 12 months reached a record high with more than a 21% adjusted EBITDA margin. We are on track to achieve record annual results and accordingly are raising our guidance for 2024 net sales and adjusted EBITDA. This guidance includes nearly a 36% annual gross margin at the midpoint of our updated annual guidance range for net sales and adjusted EBITDA growth. While the external environment remains dynamic, we believe overall end market demand for the rest of the year will remain resilient and we are confident in our team's ability to execute while we look forward to 2025. We remain focused on ramping up our new brass foundry and continue to expect to close our old brass foundry by the end of calendar 2024. With this tailwind and our ongoing operational improvements, we will look to leverage our leading market positions and investments to drive future sales and margin growth. With that, I'll turn it over to Steve.