Xylem Inc.

Welcome to the Xylem second quarter 2021 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants have been placed on listen-only mode, and the floor will be open for your questions following the presentation. If you would like to ask a question at that time, please press star 1 on your telephone. If at any point your question has been answered, you may remove yourself from the queue by pressing the pound key. We ask that you please pick up your handset to allow optimal sound quality. Lastly, if you require operator assistance, please press star zero. I would now like to turn the conference over to Matt Latino, Vice President of Investor Relations.

Thank you. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Xylem's second quarter earnings conference call. With me today are Chief Executive Officer Patrick Decker and Chief Financial Officer Sandy Rowland. They will provide their perspective on Xylem's second quarter results and our outlook. Following our prepared remarks, we will address questions related to the information covered on the call. I'll ask that you please keep to one question and a follow-up and then return to the queue. As a reminder, this call and our webcast are accompanied by a slide presentation available in the investor section of our website at www.xylem.com. A replay of today's call will be available until midnight on September 1st. Please note the replay number is 800-585-8367, and the confirmation code is 877-4036. Additionally, the call will be available for playback via the investor section of our website under the heading Investor Events. Please turn to slide two. We will make some forward-looking statements on today's call, including references to future events or developments that we anticipate will or may occur in the future. All references will be on an organic or adjusted basis unless otherwise indicated. These statements are subject to future risks and uncertainties, such as those factors described in Xylem's most recent annual report on Form 10-K and in subsequent reports filed with the SEC, including in our Form 10-Q, to report results for the period ending June 30, 2021. Please note that the company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements publicly to reflect subsequent events or circumstances. And actual events or results could differ materially from those anticipated. In the appendix, we have also provided you with a summary of our key performance metrics, including both GAAP and non-GAAP metrics. For purposes of today's call, all references will be on an organic and adjusted basis unless otherwise indicated. Non-GAAP financials have been reconciled for you and are in the appendix of the presentation. Now, please turn to slide three, and I will turn the call over to our CEO, Patrick Decker.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. The call is starting a bit later in the morning than usual this quarter, so by now you will have seen that second quarter performance exceeded our expectations on all major metrics, including orders, revenue, margin, and earnings per share. I'm very proud of beating the healthy pace we set in the first quarter and delivering a very strong first half of the year. Underlying demand for our solutions was robust across all segments and in markets. Hello, everybody. Please stand by one moment. And the team did a great job converting that into better than expected performance and continuing to expand margin. They delivered even more exceptional results on orders, which grew 29% on underlying demand across all regions. In addition, backlog is up 35% versus this point last year. That broad expansion reflects commercial momentum that puts us in a strong position, both now and into the future, as we continue to invest in sustainable growth. At the end of the first quarter, we raised full-year guidance on revenue and earnings. The second quarter's performance shows a continuing strong trajectory into the second half, and we're reflecting that by further raising full-year revenue guidance. The top line benefits are likely to be moderated somewhat by inflation and a challenging supply chain environment. But we've been proactive on price and are working with our supply chain partners to mitigate the impact of those headwinds. So we are also raising the midpoint on earnings per share guidance for the full year. In a moment, I'll provide some additional color on what we're seeing globally. But first, let me hand it over to Sandy to provide more detail on performance in the quarter.