Reliance Steel & Aluminum Co

Greetings and welcome to Reliance, Inc. First Quarter 2024 Earnings Conference 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, Kim Orlando, with ADDO Investor Relations. Thank you, Ms. Orlando. You may begin.

Thank you, Operator. Good morning, and thanks to all of you for joining our conference call to discuss Reliance's first quarter 2024 financial results. I am joined by Carla Lewis, President and Chief Executive Officer, Steve Cook, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, and Arthur Ajemian, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. A recording of this call will be posted on the investor section of our website at investor.reliance.com. Please read the forward-looking statement disclosures included in our earnings release issued this morning and note that it applies to all statements made during this teleconference. The reconciliations of the adjusted numbers are included in the non-GAAP reconciliation part of our earnings release. I will now turn the call over to Carla Lewis, President and CEO of Reliance.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you all for joining us today to discuss our first quarter 2024 results. Our resilient business model, most notably the diversity of our products and markets and geography, once again delivered strong performance in the first quarter. Despite a challenging pricing environment, we continue to drive smart, profitable growth, surpassing broader industry shipment levels, and maintain pricing discipline and a strong gross profit margin, all of which collectively contributed to our first quarter non-GAAP earnings per diluted share of $5.30. Our significant investments in value-added processing capabilities continue to bolster our gross profit margin throughout market cycles. Our profitable operations and consistent ability to generate cash enable us to continue allocating capital across our core priorities. We have completed three acquisitions to date in 2024, expanding our product offerings, processing capabilities, and geographic reach, and collectively adding nearly $500 million in annualized sales based on 2023 results. We also invested $108.7 million back into our business through capital expenditures predominantly targeted toward growth opportunities that increase capacity and value-added processing capabilities. Our CapEx budget for the calendar year 2024 is $440 million with an expected total cash outlay of approximately $500 million, which includes certain carryover projects from prior years. As previously noted, we expect approximately two-thirds of our CapEx spend will be used for growth projects. We also returned $65.3 million to our valued stockholders in dividends. On the M&A side, in addition to acquiring Cooksey Steel on February 1st, we completed two acquisitions earlier this month, American Alloy and Midwest Materials. American Alloy brings specialty carbon steel plate to our product portfolio, as well as new fabrication capabilities through the addition of six service center locations in the U.S. Midwest Materials increases our flat-rolled presence in and around Ohio, primarily servicing North American OEMs. All of these transactions fit our acquisition strategy of acquiring immediately accretive, well-run companies with strong management teams. We have now completed 75 acquisitions since our 1994 IPO, and the M&A pipeline remains strong as we continue to evaluate a wide array of potential future opportunities. And please note that our first quarter results include contributions from Cooksey that was acquired on February 1st, but do not include American Alloy or Midwest materials, both of which closed on April 1st. Before I close, I'd like to thank the entire Reliance team for a strong start to the year through their commitment to exceptional customer service, smart, profitable growth, and most importantly, their commitment to safety. In the medium to long term, We believe the investments we have made and continue to make in our business position reliance to benefit from growth opportunities under the Infrastructure Bill, the CHIPS Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act, along with the robust reshoring and nearshoring activity currently underway in several of the end markets we service. Thank you all for your time today. I'll now turn the call over to Steve, who will review our first quarter demand and pricing trends.