Watsco, Inc.

Good morning and welcome to the Watsco first quarter 2020-2021 earnings call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. Please note, this event is being recorded. I'd now like to turn the conference over to Albert Named, Chairman and CEO. Please go ahead.

Good morning, everyone. Welcome to Watts Coast First Quarter Earnings Call. And this is Al Namid, Chairman and CEO. With me is A.J. Namid, who is the President, and our two Executive Vice Presidents, Paul Johnson and Mary Logan. Before we start, our usual cautionary statement. The conference call is forward-looking statements as defined by SEC laws and regulations that are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of these various laws. Ultimate results may differ materially and forward-looking statements. Now on to our financial report. Wattsco achieved record first quarter results. Earnings per share grew 93% to a record $1.39 per share. Records were set for sales, gross profits, gross margin, operating income, operating margin, net income, and earnings per share. Now these results were driven by strong sales growth made at higher selling margins along with improved operating efficiencies. When we look at our product offering, we achieved double-digit sales growth in equipment, non-equipment, and commercial refrigeration. And in terms of geography, growth rates during the quarter were similar for U.S. markets and international markets as a whole. For HVAC equipment, residential sales increased 18% and commercial equipment sales stabilized and are now trending more positively. But more important, this is not just about one quarter. Over the last 12 months, residential equipment sales in our U.S. markets have increased 15% and we believe meaningful market share gains have been achieved. Looking forward, we expect business to be strong, and that 2021 will be another record year of performance for our company. Adding more color, Watsco's industry-leading technology continues to gain adoption. That leads to new customer acquisition, and we believe development of greater market share. Now, a few important trends are also continuing. Active technology users continue to outpace growth rates of non-users. Customer attrition among active technology users is meaningfully lower compared to non-users. And our platforms used by contractors to make sales to homeowners gain more users. That in turn doubled the number of at-home sales presentations and increased sales volumes that flow through our platforms called OnCallAir and Credit4Comfort. We are happy with our progress, but we believe it is still early in terms of reaching the full potential of our technology investments. We once again invite you to schedule a Zoom call with us, and we can further explain our technology and its impact. Moving along financially, our balance sheet remains in pristine condition with only a small amount of debt. We are excited to have closed two weeks ago on the acquisition of Temperature Equipment Corporation, also known as TEC. This is a long-established, generationally-owned company headquartered in Chicago. TEC adds 32 locations and approximately $300 million in revenue and establishes Wasco's first major presence in the Midwest United States. I must say that TEC is a great company with a long and proud history. They are led by a wonderful team of entrepreneurs and we are honored to be part of their family. They are also off to a strong start this year, and we expect their results to be accretive to 2021 results. We continue to look for other transactions for great businesses like TEC. While doing our search, we offer our well-known culture, That is to say, again, when we search, we offer a well-known culture that respects and continues a company's distinct legacy, and we support their plans for growth. We think that Watsco is a great next step for family-owned companies in our industry. Lastly, a reminder that we raised our dividends by 10% in April 2021 to $7.80. a follow-up to the record cash flow achieved in 2020. We believe our dividend is a good reason to own Wattsco over the long term. 2021 marks our 47th consecutive year paying dividends, and yet we have increased our dividends 19 of the last 20 years. From $0.10 per share in the year 2000, let me say that again, from $0.10 per share in the year 2000, to today's annual rate of $7.80. Now, with that, Al Paul, A.J. Paul Berry, and I are happy to answer your questions.

We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press star, then 1 on your touch-tone phone. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. To withdraw your question, please press star, then 2. Our first question comes from Josh Pokryzwinski from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead. Morning, Josh.