Teledyne Technologies Incorporated

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Teledyne Technologies first quarter earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question-and-answer session, and instructions will be given at that time. If you should require assistance during the call, please press star followed by the zero. As a reminder, today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to your host, Mr. Jason VanWees. Please go ahead, sir.

Great, thank you. Good morning, everyone. This is Jason VanWees, Executive Vice President, and I'd like to welcome everyone to Teledyne's first quarter 2019 earnings release conference call. We released our earnings earlier this morning before the market opened. Joining me today are Teledyne's Executive Chairman Robert Mehrabian, President and CEO Al Pacelli, Senior Vice President and CFO Sue Main, and SVP General Counsel Chief Compliance Officer and Secretary Melanie Cibik. After remarks by Robert, Al, and Sue, we will ask for your questions. Of course, before we get started, our attorneys have reminded me to tell you that all forward-looking statements made this morning are subject to various assumptions, risks, and caveats, as noted in the earnings release and our periodic SEC filings. And yes, actual results may differ materially. In order to avoid potential selective disclosures, this call is simultaneously being webcast and a replay both via webcast and dial-in will be available for approximately one month. Here is Robert.

Thank you, Jason, and good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining our earnings call. We began 2019 with the strongest first quarter in the company's history. Sales, earnings, operating margin, and cash flow were all records for any first quarter. I'm very pleased with the breadth Thank you for joining us. increased 11.6% compared to last year. In what is a seasonally weaker period, record first quarter pre-cash flow of $59 million allowed us to complete the scientific camera acquisition from Roper with only a modest increase in our leverage ratio, that's our debt to EBDA ratio, from 1.5 at the end of 2018 to 1.6 as of March 31, 2019. We also continue to execute our proven strategy. First, to possess a well-balanced and focused business portfolio. Teledyne is not a complex company, but rather a portfolio of related companies and products with common underlying technologies that serve different customers and markets. Second, we want to continue to improve our operations, and third, to compound growth in earnings and free cash flow driven by both organic growth and complementary acquisitions. On that final point, our balance sheet remains exceptionally strong and our acquisition pipeline is healthy. Nevertheless, we always remain a very disciplined acquirer, allocating capital prudently as we successfully integrate acquired businesses. I will now pass the call to Al, and he will comment on the performance of our four business segments.