Badger Meter, Inc. (NYSE:BMI) Q1 2023 Earnings Conference Call April 20, 2023 11:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Karen Bauer - Vice President of Investor Relations, Corporate Strategy and Treasurer

Ken Bockhorst - Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer

Bob Wrocklage - Chief Financial Officer

Conference Call Participants

Nathan Jones - Stifel

Ryan Connors - Northcoast Research

Rob Mason - Baird

Tate Sullivan - Maxim Group

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the First Quarter 2023 Badger Meter Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, today's conference is being recorded.

It is now my pleasure to turn the conference over to Karen Bauer, Vice President of Investor Relations, Corporate Strategy and Treasurer. Please go ahead, Ms. Bauer.

Karen Bauer

Good morning, and thank you for joining the Badger Meter first quarter 2023 earnings conference call.

On the call with me today are Ken Bockhorst, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Bob Wrocklage, Chief Financial Officer.

The earnings release and related slide presentation are available on our website.

Quickly, I will cover the safe harbor, reminding you that any forward-looking statements made during this call are subject to various risks and uncertainties, the most important of which are outlined in our press release and SEC filings.

On today's call, we will refer to certain non-GAAP financial metrics. Our earnings slides provide a reconciliation of the GAAP to non-GAAP financial metrics used.

With that, I will turn the call over to Ken.

Ken Bockhorst

Thanks, Karen, and thank you for joining our first quarter earnings call.

The Badger Meter team started off the year continuing the exceptional performance of 2022, delivering record revenue and profit while still achieving yet another positive book-to-bill ratio. Operating profit margin improved, benefiting from both gross profit margin expansion and continuing SEA expense leverage.

Early in the quarter, we completed the Syrinix acquisition, adding pressure monitoring and acoustic leak detection capabilities to our broad smart water solutions. We're pleased with the integration progress and the early discussions we're having with customers about our expanded offerings, reinforcing our views on the complementary and scalable nature of the acquisition.

I'll provide an update on the macroenvironment and outlook later in the call, but for now, I'll turn the call over to Bob to go through the details of the quarter.

Bob Wrocklage

Thanks, Ken, and good morning, everyone.

Turning to Slide 4. Our total sales in the first quarter were $159 million, an increase of 20% compared to the $132.4 million in the same period last year, representing an all-time record sales quarter for Badger Meter.