Lear Corporation (NYSE:LEA) Q4 2023 Earnings Conference Call February 6, 2024 8:30 AM ET

Company Participants

Ed Lowenfeld – Vice President-Investor Relations

Ray Scott – President and Chief Executive Officer

Jason Cardew – Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Conference Call Participants

Rod Lache – Wolfe Research

Dan Levy – Barclays

John Murphy – Bank of America

James Picariello – BNP Paribas

Emmanuel Rosner – Deutsche Bank

Operator

Good morning, and welcome to the Lear Corporation Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2023 Earnings Conference Call. All participants will be in a listen-only mode. [Operator Instructions] After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. Please also note, today's event is being recorded.

At this time, I'd like to turn the floor over to Ed Lowenfeld, Vice President, Investor Relations. Sir, please go ahead.

Ed Lowenfeld

Thanks, Jamie. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for Lear's fourth quarter and full year 2023 earnings call. Presenting today are Ray Scott, Lear President and CEO; Jason Cardew, Senior Vice President and CFO. Other members of Lear's senior management team have also joined us on the call.

Following prepared remarks, we will open the call for Q&A. You can find a copy of the presentation that accompanies these remarks at ir.lear.com. Before we begin, I'd like to take this opportunity to remind you that as we conduct this call, we will be making forward-looking statements to assist you in understanding Lear's expectations for the future. As detailed in our safe harbor statement on Slide 2, our actual results could differ materially from these forward-looking statements due to many factors discussed in our latest 10-Q and other periodic reports.

I also want to remind you that during today's presentation, we will refer to non-GAAP financial metrics. You are directed to the slides in the appendix of our presentation for the reconciliation of non-GAAP items to the most directly comparable GAAP measures. The agenda for today's call is on Slide 3. First, Ray will review highlights from the year and provide a business update. Jason will then review our fourth quarter financial results and our full year 2024 outlook.

Finally, Ray will offer some concluding remarks. Following the formal presentation, we would be happy to take your questions. Now I'd like to invite Ray to begin.

Ray Scott

Thanks, Ed. Please turn to Slide 5, which highlights key financial metrics for the fourth quarter and full year 2023. The generated record revenue in 2023 of $23.5 billion, an increase of 12% from 2022. Core operating earnings grew by 29% to $1.1 billion. Adjusted earnings per share was $12.02, an increase of 38%. Operating cash flow improved by 22% to over $1.2 billion, and we exceeded our free cash flow conversion target of 80%.