Eagle Materials, Inc. (NYSE:EXP) Q1 2024 Earnings Conference Call July 27, 2023 8:30 AM ET
Company Participants
Michael Haack - President & CEO
Craig Kesler - EVP, Finance & Administration & CFO
Conference Call Participants
Trey Grooms - Stephens, Inc.
Brent Thielman - D.A. Davidson
Asher Sohnen - Citigroup
Jatin Khanna - Goldman Sachs
Stanley Elliott - Stifel
Adam Thalhimer - Thompson, Davis & Company
Operator
Good day, everyone and welcome to Eagle Materials First Quarter of Fiscal 2024 Earnings Conference Call. This call is being recorded.
At this time, I would like to turn the call over to Eagle's President and Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Michael Haack. Mr. Haack, please go ahead, sir.
Michael Haack
Thank you. Good morning. Welcome to Eagle Materials conference call for our first quarter of fiscal year 2024. This is Michael Haack. Joining me today are Craig Kesler, our Chief Financial Officer; and Alex Haddock, Vice President of Investor Relations, Strategy and Corporate Development. There will be a slide presentation made in connection with this call. To access it, please go to eaglematerials.com and click on the link to the webcast.
While you're accessing the slides, please note that the first slide covers our cautionary disclosure regarding forward-looking statements made during this call. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause results to differ from those discussed during this call. For further information, please refer to this disclosure which is also included at the end of our press release. Let me start by saying how pleased I am to discuss another record quarter and a strong start to our fiscal year 2024. This quarter, we generated record revenue and net earnings expanded gross margin by 240 basis points, increased adjusted EPS by 26% and returned $83 million to shareholders through share repurchases and dividends.
Our performance in the current economic environment, where questions about the U.S. economy have dominated headlines for several quarters, demonstrates how our low-cost producer position benefits us across a variety of market conditions. You've heard me say many times that the ability to maintain our low-cost producer position ultimately relies on the industry-leading execution by our people. Therefore, I want to thank all of the Eagle employees for their time and dedication that went into achieving the results we have had not only this quarter but over the past years, you make a difference.
Safety is a fundamental part of the Eagle culture. I could best summarize our safety culture as one where Eagle employees care for and watch out for each other. We have been successful in minimizing safety issues using our near miss reporting system that identifies leading indicators to address safety issues before they happen. I'm happy to report that Eagle continues to set the benchmark in industry safety maintaining a total reportable incident rate well below the industry average.