STERIS plc

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the SARIS PLC third quarter 2024 conference call. All participants will be in a listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please know a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star and then one using a touchtone telephone. To withdraw your question, you may press star and two. There's also note today's event is being recorded, and at this time I'd like to turn the floor over to Julie Winter, Investor Relations. Ma'am, please go ahead.

Thank you, Jamie, and good morning, everyone. As usual, speaking on today's call will be Mike Tookett, our Senior Vice President and CFO, and Dan Correstio, our President and CEO. And I do have a few words of caution before we open for comments. This webcast contains time-sensitive information that is accurate only as of today. Any redistribution, retransmission, or rebroadcast of this call without the express written consent of Staris is strictly prohibited. Some of the statements made during this review are, or may be considered, forward-looking statements. Many important factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, those risk factors described in Staris's securities filings. The company does not undertake to update or revise any forward-looking statements as a result of new information or future events or developments. Services SEC filings are available through the company and on our website. In addition, on today's call, non-GAAP financial measures including adjusted earnings per diluted share, adjusted operating income, constant currency organic revenue growth, and free cash flow will be used. Additional information regarding these measures, including definitions, is available in our release as well as reconciliations between GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures. Non-GAAP financial measures are presented during this call with the intent of providing greater transparency to supplemental financial information used by management and the Board of Directors in their financial analysis and operational decision making. With those questions, I will hand the call over to Mike.

Thank you, Julie, and good morning, everyone. It is once again my pleasure to be with you this morning to review the highlights of our third quarter performance. For the quarter, constant currency organic revenue increased 10% driven by volume as well as 270 basis points of price. Gross margin for the quarter increased 50 basis points compared with the prior year to 43.6%. Price more than offset continued material and labor inflation in addition to the negative impact from currency. EBIT margin decreased 80 basis points to 23.1% of revenue compared with the third quarter last year. The anticipated increase in our year-over-year incentive compensation expense along with the mixed shift in operating income from the AST segment to the healthcare segment impacted EBIT margins. We anticipate that the mixed shift in operating income from AST to healthcare will continue in the fourth quarter. The adjusted effective tax rate in the quarter was 22.6%. That income in the quarter was 220.9 million, and adjusted earnings were $2.22 per diluted share. Capital expenditures for the first nine months of fiscal 24 totaled $268.8 million, while depreciation and amortization totaled $430.8 million. Debt declined slightly to $3.3 billion in the third quarter. total debt to EBITDA at quarter end was approximately 2.2 times gross leverage. Free cash flow for the first nine months of fiscal 2024 was $457 million, compared with $262.8 million for the first nine months of fiscal 2023. The fiscal 2024 increase was driven by higher earnings and declines in cash used for tax and compensation-related payments, as well as a decline in capital expenditures. With that, I will turn the call over to Dan for his remarks.