Watsco, Inc.

Good morning, and welcome to the Watsco Incorporated fourth quarter and full year 2021 earnings conference 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. To ask a question, you may press star, then one on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, please press star, then two. Please note, this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Albert Namud, Chief Executive Officer. Please go ahead.

Good morning, everyone. I hope you're safe and healthy wherever you are. I want to welcome you to our fourth quarter earnings call. And this is Al Namud, Chairman and CEO. With me is A.J. Namud, President of Watsco, and Paul Johnson, Barry Logan, and Rick Gomez. Before we start our report, here's our cautionary statement. This conference call has forward-looking statements as defined by SEC laws and regulations that are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of these various laws, and ultimate results may differ materially from the forward-looking statements. On to our report. Walsh could deliver an exceptional quarter to close out a fantastic year. New records were set for virtually every measure of performance. During the quarter, earnings per share jumped 77% to a record $2.02 per share. Sales grew 31% to a record $1.5 billion, and operating income increased 76% to a record $123 million. Operating margins expanded 210 basis points to a record 8.1% in the fourth quarter. Now on for results for the year. Earnings per share increased 54% to a record $10.78 per share. Sales grew 24% to a record $6.3 billion. During the year, operating income increased $227 million. or 57% to record $629 million. And operating margins reached 10%, a 210 basis points increase from last year.

And very important, I always like to emphasize this because this is our culture.