Qiagen N.V.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. I'm Melinda, your PGI call operator. Welcome and thank you for joining QIAGEN's first quarter 2024 earnings conference call webcast. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Please be advised this call is being recorded at QIAGEN's request and will be made available on their internet site. The prepared remarks will be followed by a question and answer session. If you'd like to ask a question, you may press star followed by one on your touchtone telephone. Please press the star key followed by zero for operator assistance. At this time, I'd like to introduce your host, John Ghilardi, Vice President of Corporate Communications and Investor Relations at QIAGEN. Please go ahead.

Thank you, operator, and welcome to all of you for joining us on this call. We appreciate your interest in QIAGEN. Our speakers today are Terry Bernard, our Chief Executive Officer, and Roland Sackers, our Chief Financial Officer. This call is being webcast live and will be archived on the Investor Relations section of our website at www.kygen.com. You can also find a copy of the quarterly results, press release, and the presentation on our website. We will begin with remarks from Terry and Roland, followed by a Q&A session. Before we start, let me note again that we are going to host the Capital Markets Day on June 17th, and the event will be held at the New York Stock Exchange. An invitation has already been sent out and information is available under our website under the events section. You can also attend this event online, but we'd love to see you in person. Let's now go over our safe harbor statement. The views expressed during this conference call and the responses to your questions represent the views and perspectives of management as of today, April 30th, 2024. We will be making statements and providing responses to your questions that convey our intentions, beliefs, expectations, and predictions for the future. These forward-looking statements fall under the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. They involve risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ materially from those suggested by these forward-looking statements. Factors that could influence results are mentioned in our filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. These filings are available on the SEC's website and also on our website. Gaijin disclaims any intention or obligation to update any forward-looking statements. Additionally, we will refer to certain financial measures not prepared following generally accepted accounting principles or GAAP. All references to EPS or earnings per share refer to diluted EPS. You can find a reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures in our press release and the presentation. Now I'd like to hand over the call to Teri.

Thank you, John, and good morning, good afternoon, or good evening, depending on where you are in the world. To all of you, thanks for joining us. We are very pleased today to report another solid quarter in which our teams focused on execution and delivered results ahead of our plans. Despite the cautious capital spending environment among our customers, our results show that we are on track to achieve the goals for 2024. Let me share our key messages today with you. First, our results for the first quarter of 2024 were ahead of the outlook as we worked through the final quarter of pandemic COVID-19 headwinds. Kayagen achieved net sales of $462 million at constant exchange rates, which was ahead of the outlook for at least $455 million CER. This represented a 5% decline from the first quarter of 2023. And sales were down 1% CER for the non-COVID product groups. Recurring consumable sales continued to account for more than 85% of total net sales, a signal of the durability of our sales base. One of the highlights of Q1 was the 5% CER growth of our diagnostic solutions product group. This confirmed the strength and resilience of our portfolio mix as we saw double-digit sales growth for the Quantiferon TB test, and for the Chiostat syndromic testing system amid solid placement. Adjusted earnings per shares were 0.47 at CER and ahead of the outlook for at least 0.44 CER. As a second key message, our teams executed on our balance and focus strategy and delivering growth in many pillars. This really creates a foundation for us to build momentum during the year. QuantiFerron once again delivered a strong quarter with 11% CER sales growth, fueled by positive demand trends in every region. The first quarter also marked another quarter with net sales above $100 million. Sales of Chiostat Diagnostics were up 21% CER. We saw a high level of demand in panels for both respiratory as well as non-respiratory testing, while we continue to see a solid trend in terms of instruments placement. Our teams are still working collaboratively with the FDA to get a final decision on the gastrointestinal panel submission. Our digital PCR system QIAQUITY also delivers solid double-digit CER growth with strong expansion in consumables and an ongoing high level of instrument placement. We are very pleased to see the increasing demand for this differentiated technology. A key driver of consumables growth has been the expansion of application for use on QIAQUITY particularly for biopharma application to support pharma research and development and new drug discovery. Sample text cells were clearly impacted by the COVID headwind and also by weaker demand trends in China. For this product group, we still anticipate better year-on-year trends during the rest of the year and continue to expect low single-digit CER growth for 2024. Particularly noteworthy in this first quarter were higher sales of automated consumables for use on Kaya Symphony, Kaya Cube Connect, or EZ2. Pneumodics sales were below our expectation for the quarter of 2024. As we have noted before, we are reviewing strategic options and plan to have a decision by our capital markets day in June the 17th. As a third message, we saw an ongoing high level of profitability with a 25.7% adjusted operating income margin. This compared to 25.6% in Q1 2023, as our teams realized efficiency gains, particularly in administrative functions, while QIAGEN made investment into research and development and commercialization initiatives. The progress in the first quarter shows how our teams are determined to deliver on our target for an adjusted operating income margin of at least 28% for the year 2024. And as a last point, we are reaffirming our full year 2024 outlook. Our plan is for 2024 net sales of at least $2 billion at CER and adjusted EPS of at least $2.10 also at constant exchange rate. Like many other companies, we are closely monitoring macro trends, focusing on our goals for 2024 and building confidence in delivering on our guidance. And I would like now to hand over to Roland for a review of our financial results.