Toro Company (The)

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Toro Company's first quarter earnings conference call. My name is Carmen, and I'll be your coordinator for today. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. We'll be facilitating a question and answer session towards the end of today's conference. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded for replay purposes. I would now like to turn the presentation over to your host for today's conference, Julie Caracas, Treasurer and Senior Manager, Director of Global Tax and Investor Relations. Please proceed, Ms. Carragher.

Thank you and good morning, everyone. Our earnings release was issued this morning, and a copy can be found in the investor information section of our corporate website, thetorocompany.com. We have also posted a first quarter earnings presentation to supplement our earnings release. On our call today are Rick Olson, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Angie Drake, Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, and Jeremy Steffen, Director, Investor Relations. During this call, we will make forward-looking statements regarding our plans and projections for the future. Forward-looking statements are based upon our historical performance and current expectations and are subject to risks, uncertainties, and other factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated by these statements. Additional information regarding these factors can be found in today's earnings release and in our investor presentations, as well as in our SEC reports. During today's call, we will refer to non-GAAP financial measures, which we believe are important in evaluating the company's performance. For more details on these measures, the most comparable GAAP measures, and a reconciliation of the two, please refer to this morning's earnings release and our investor presentations. With that, I will now turn the call over to Vic.

Thanks, Julie, and good morning, everyone. The first quarter of fiscal 2024 played out largely as we expected. Our team continued to operate with dedication, creativity, and resilience as we took actions to best capitalize on near-term demand trends. We drove productivity benefits throughout the organization to offset higher material costs and made investments to enhance our market leadership positions and drive long-term growth. For the first quarter, we delivered net sales of just over $1 billion and adjusted diluted earnings per share of 64 cents. These results include exceptional top-line growth for our underground and specialty construction and golf and grounds businesses. Our ability to capitalize on continued strong demand in these end markets was the result of actions we've taken to increase output with more stable supply. The strength in our construction and golf and grounds businesses was offset by lower shipments of zero-turn mowers, as expected, given elevated field inventories heading into the fiscal year. This compares to our first quarter a year ago when we benefited from channel replenishment of contractor-grade mowers following a period of constrained supply. The strength was also offset by lower shipments of snow and ice management products due to below average snowfall. In addition, our results were affected by a few supply chain issues that delayed shipments for select product categories in our professional segment. Based on our first quarter results, and our current visibility for the remainder of the year, we are reaffirming our full-year fiscal 2024 net sales and adjusted diluted earnings per share guidance. Angie will walk through those details shortly. Throughout the quarter, we maintained a sharp focus on positioning the company to capitalize on long-term growth opportunities. We are developing new products aligned with market growth trends and prioritizing investments in the key technology areas of alternative power, smart connected, and autonomous solutions. We believe that leveraging these investments across our broad portfolio will provide distinct competitive advantages, further strengthen our innovation leadership, and drive accelerated profitable growth. Our competitive advantage and leadership was clearly on display at the recent golf course superintendent show in Phoenix. where we showcased our full suite of golf equipment and irrigation products. Importantly, the overall strength of the golf end market was also evident, with the highest attendance since 2008 and representatives from all 50 states and 66 countries. Our booth included several new products, such as an expanded offering of fully electric versions of our proven and popular machines, which offer quiet operation with no compromise on performance. Our autonomous hybrid fairway mower that is designed to increase productivity and consistency, and our latest smart connected irrigation control system that provides unmatched ease of use and unsurpassed precision. We are extremely well positioned in the attractive golf market as the only company to offer both equipment and irrigation solutions, and as the global market leader in both. During the quarter, we also advanced our enterprise strategic priority of driving productivity and operational excellence. Our multi-year initiative that we've named AMP for Amplifying Maximum Productivity is off to a great start. Our transformation office is in place and we are on track to deliver at least $100 million of annualized savings by fiscal 2027. As we discussed, we intend to reinvest a portion of the savings to further accelerate innovation and long-term growth. Finally, we maintained our focus on sustainability. This includes partnering with other industry leaders to share knowledge and solutions that promote environmental benefits, such as reduced exhaust and noise emissions and less water and chemical usage. For example, we extended our 10-year partnership with GEO Foundation for Sustainable Golf, an organization focused on accelerating sustainability in and through golf worldwide. We believe our focus on innovation, from enhancing our market leadership to driving sustainability benefits, provides significant long-term opportunities for the twirl company. I'll discuss our outlook further following Angie's detailed review of our financial results and guidance. With that, I will turn the call over to Angie.