ESCO Technologies Inc. (NYSE:ESE) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript November 16, 2023 5:00 PM ET

Company Participants

Kate Lowrey - Vice President of Investor Relations

Bryan Sayler - President & Chief Executive Officer

Chris Tucker - Senior Vice President & Chief Financial Officer

Conference Call Participants

John Franzreb - Sidoti & Company

Jon Tanwanteng - CJS Securities

Operator

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Fourth Quarter 2023 ESCO Technologies Earnings Call. At this time all participants are in a listen only mode. After the speaker's presentation there will be a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. On the call today we have Bryan Sayler, President and CEO; Chris Tucker, Senior Vice President and CFO.

And now, I would like to hand the conference over to our first speaker today, Kate Lowrey, Vice President of Invest Relations. Kate, you now have the floor.

Kate Lowrey

Thank you. Statements made during this call, which are not strictly historical, are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the Federal Securities Laws. These statements are based on current expectations and assumptions and actual results may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements due to risks and uncertainties that exist in the company's operations and business environment, including, but not limited to, the risk factors referenced in the company's press release issued today, which will be included as an exhibit to the company's form 8-K to be filed. We undertake no duty to update or revise any forward-looking statements except if may be required by applicable laws or regulations.

In addition, during this call, the company may discuss some non-GAAP financial measures in describing the company's operating results. A reconciliation of these measures to the most comparable GAAP measures can be found in the press release issued today and found on the company's website at www.escotechnologies.com under the link Investor Relations.

Now, I'll turn the call over to Bryan.

Bryan Sayler

Thanks Kate, and thanks to everyone for joining today's call. We appreciate each of you taking time to get an update on ESCO this afternoon. We had a very strong year and I'm excited to tell you all about it.

With that, let me pivot to some summary comments on the business. We finished the year strong, and as you saw in the press release, closed the year with record results on a number of measures. Sales, adjusted earnings per share, entered orders, and ending backlog were all record levels in 2023. Sales grew by 11.5% and adjusted EBIT was up 17%. So it was great to have double digit growth once again for both sales and earnings.