WESCO International, Inc.

presentation. If you would like to ask a question, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypad. Please note, this event is being recorded. I now hand the call over to Scott Gaffner, SVP, and Veterans Relations to begin.

Thank you, and good morning to everyone joining us today. Before we get started, I want to remind you that certain statements made on this call contain forward-looking information. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of performance and, by their nature, are subject to uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially. Please see our webcast slides and the company's SEC filings for additional risk factors and disclosures. Any forward-looking information speaks only as of this date, and the company undertakes no obligation to update the information to reflect changed circumstances. Additionally, today we used certain non-GAAP financial measures Required information on these measures is available on our webcast slides and in our press release, both of which are posted on our website at Wesco.com. On this call this morning, we have John Engel, Wesco's Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer, and Dave Schultz, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. And I'll turn the call over to John.

Thank you, Scott. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining our call today. Our first quarter sales met our expectations and our overall performance compared against a very strong first quarter a year ago was in line with our typical seasonal pattern and our full year outlook. Quoting bid activity levels and backlog all remain healthy and support our view for sequential growth as the year progresses. Our free cash flow generation, and it's something we're acutely focused on, was a record $731 million in the first quarter. We utilized a portion of this free cash flow to repurchase $50 million worth of common stock in the first quarter, and we reduced our net debt, bringing our financial leverage down by two-tenths of a turn. Our financial leverage now stands at 2.6 times EBITDA, and that's getting very close to our recently reduced target range of 1.5 to 2.5 times. More importantly, and I want to highlight this, we generated more than $1.4 billion in free cash flow over the trailing 12-month period. Historically, Westview has demonstrated the ability to consistently generate free cash flow of 100% of net income over time. With double-digit growth and significant supply chain disruption in 2021 and 2022 coming out of the COVID pandemic, we invested in net working capital, resulting in cash flow conversions that was well below our historical average. Our trailing 12-month cash generation results smooth out the inter-quarter effects that we experienced last year as supply chains normalized. I want to highlight that all three components of working capital, that is accounts receivable, inventory, and accounts payable, contributed to this record $1.4 billion of free cash flow generation over the last four quarters. clearly highlighting the power of distribution business model. In addition, during the first quarter, we announced the divestiture of our integrated supply business, which closed on April 1st. We expect to use all of the after-tax proceeds of approximately $300 million to repurchase common stock starting in the second quarter. As Dave will discuss in more detail later in the call, we are reaffirming our previous full-year outlook for organic sales growth, adjusted EBITDA margin, and adjusted earnings per share. We completed $20 million of annualized structural cost reductions late in the first quarter. And I think as you all know, this is in addition to the $45 million of cost reduction actions we took in 2023. Our outlook for the year has been updated to reflect the divestiture of our integrated supply business on April 1st and our expectation to fully deploy these proceeds to share repurchases. Given the record free cash flow generation in the first quarter, we are also increasing our full-year free cash flow outlook to $800 million to $1 billion, or more than 100% of adjusted net income at the midpoint, which provides increased optionality for share repurchases, debt reduction, and or M&A in the second half. Finally, we expect to be within our target leverage range. That's the recently reduced target leverage range, that is. of 1.5 to 2.5 times by year end. We are laser-focused on continual improvement and making the internal investments to improve our performance and our capabilities. The long-term secular growth trends remain intact, and they are opportunities that will sustain Wesco's long-term growth and allow us to increase our share because of our unique global capabilities, our broad portfolio, and our scale. I'll now hand it over to Dave to take you through our first quarter results in more detail, as well as our outlook for the rest of the year. Dave. Thank you, John. Good morning, everyone.