Quad/Graphics, Inc. (QUAD) Q1 2024 Earnings Conference Call May 1, 2024 8:30 AM ET

Company Participants

Katie Krebsbach - IR Manager
Joel Quadracci - Chairman, President and CEO
Anthony Staniak - CFO

Conference Call Participants

Kevin Steinke - Barrington Research
Barton Crockett - Rosenblatt Securities

Operator

Good morning, and welcome to Quad's First Quarter 2024 Conference Call. [Operator Instructions].

A slide presentation accompanies today's webcast and participants are invited to follow along, advancing the slides themselves. To access the webcast, follow the instructions posted in the earnings release. Alternatively, you can access the slide presentation on the Investors section of Quad's website under the Events and Presentations link. [Operator Instructions] Please note this event is being recorded.

I would now like to turn the conference over to Katie Krebsbach, Quad's Investor Relations Manager. Katie, please go ahead.

Katie Krebsbach

Thank you, operator, and good morning, everyone. With me today are Joel Quadracci, Quad's Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Tony Staniak, Quad's Chief Financial Officer. Joel will lead today's call with a business update and Tony will follow with a summary of Quad's first quarter 2024 financial results, followed by Q&A.

I would like to remind everyone that this call is being webcast and forward-looking statements are subject to safe harbor provisions as outlined in our quarterly news release and in today's slide presentation on Slide 2.

Quad's financial results are prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. However, this presentation also contains non-GAAP financial measures, including, adjusted EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA margin, adjusted diluted earnings per share, free cash flow, net debt and debt leverage ratio. We have included in the slide presentation reconciliations of these non-GAAP financial measures to GAAP financial measures.

Finally, a replay of the call and the slide presentation will be available on the Investors section of quad.com shortly after our call concludes today.

I will now hand over the call to Joel.

Joel Quadracci

Thank you, Katie, and good morning, everyone.

Our first quarter results were in line with our expectations, and we remain on track to achieve our full year 2024 financial guidance. As we communicated on our last earnings call, we anticipated the first quarter would have the most significant year-over-year decrease in net sales and adjusted EBITDA of any quarter in 2024.

External factors impacting sales included significant postal rate increases and ongoing economic uncertainty like elevated interest rates, which led to a decrease in financial services direct mailings. Sales were also negatively impacted by the recent loss of a large grocery client. Free cash flow improved in the first quarter, and we will continue to use our strong free cash flow generation and cash from asset sales to fuel our diverse capital allocation strategy.