Teledyne Technologies Incorporated

Ladies and gentlemen, good morning. Thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Teledyne fourth quarter earnings call. At this time, all lines are in a listen-only mode. Later, there will be an opportunity for your questions, and instructions will be given at that time. If you should require any assistance today, please press star followed by the zero, and an AT&T operator will assist you. As a reminder, today's conference is being recorded. This time, it's my pleasure to turn the conference over to our host, Mr. Jason Van Wees. Please go ahead.

Thanks, Tom, and Thanks, everyone. This is Jason Van Weese, Vice Chairman. I'd like to welcome everyone to Teledyne's fourth quarter and full year 2013 earnings release conference call. We released our earnings earlier this morning. Joining me today are Teledyne's Executive Chairman, Robert Moravian, and our new but familiar management team, CEO Edwin Rocks, President and COO George Bob, Senior Vice President and CFO Steve Blackwood, and also Melanie Civic, EVP and General Counsel, Chief Compliance Officer and Secretary. After remarks by Robert, Edwin, George, and Steve, we will ask for your questions. Of course, so before we get started, 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 of course, 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. Good morning, and thank you for joining our earnings call. In the fourth quarter, we achieved all-time record sales and gap and non-gap earnings per share. Sales increased primarily... due to the performance of our marine, medical, and aerospace businesses, which were more than able to compensate for the previously announced headwind in the industrial automation and laboratory instrumentation market. Furthermore, overall record orders exceeded sales in every business segment, but were particularly strong in our marine and defense businesses. Leverage declined further to 1.9, and our balance sheet remains healthy. Finally, we continue to acquire complementary businesses as shown by the acquisition of Xena networks in the fourth quarter. Compared with last year, fourth quarter and full year non-GAAP operating margins increased 27, and 57 basis points, respectively. Our broad-based strength in orders was encouraging, especially in the uncertain global macro environment today. Nevertheless, it's worth noting that most of the increase in orders was in our backlog-driven longer cycle businesses. So converting the orders to sales will take a little time. In terms of 2024 outlook, we therefore think the quarterly sales and earnings ramp will be a bit greater than in recent years. So while we see annual 2024 sales growth of about 4%, we believe the typically seasonally low first quarter will be slightly under $1.4 billion, or roughly flat with last year. I will now turn the call over to Edwin and George, who will further comment on the performance of our four business segments.