Applied Industrial Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:AIT) Q4 2024 Results Conference Call August 15, 2024 10:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Ryan Cieslak - Director of IR, Treasury
Neil Schrimsher - President and CEO
Dave Wells - CFO

Conference Call Participants

Kenneth Newman - KeyBanc
Chris Dankert - Loop Capital

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the fiscal 2024 Fourth Quarter Earnings Call for Applied Industrial Technologies. My name is Abby, and I'll be your operator for today's call [Operator Instructions]. Please note that this conference is being recorded.

And I will now turn the call over to Ryan Cieslak, Director of Investor Relations and Treasury. Ryan, you may begin.

Ryan Cieslak

Okay. Thanks, Abby. And good morning to everyone on the call. This morning, we issued our earnings release and supplemental investor deck detailing our fourth quarter results. Both of these documents are available in the Investor Relations section of applied.com. Before we begin, just a reminder, we'll discuss our business outlook and make forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements are based on current expectations subject to certain risks and uncertainties, including those detailed in our SEC filings. Actual results may differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements. The company undertakes no obligation to update publicly or revise any forward-looking statement. In addition, the conference call will use non-GAAP financial measures, which are subject to the qualifications referenced in those documents. Our speakers today include Neil Schrimsher, Applied's President and Chief Executive Officer; and Dave Wells, our Chief Financial Officer. And with that, I'll turn it over to Neil.

Neil Schrimsher

Thanks, Ryan. And good morning, everyone. We appreciate you joining us. I'll begin with some perspective and highlights on the key drivers of our results, including an update on industry conditions as well as expectations going forward. Dave will follow with more detail on the quarter's financials and provide additional color on our fiscal 2025 guidance, and then I'll close with some final thoughts. So first, I'd like to acknowledge and thank our Applied team for their hard work and consistent execution throughout fiscal 2024. While we faced a more mixed end market backdrop during the year, the commitment to our strategy and relentlessly serving our customers is standing out across the industry and strengthening our long term potential. It's an honor to be part of this team as we work together as One Applied to achieve our commitments now and fully capture the tremendous opportunity we see ahead for the company. Overall, the strength of our team and strategy was apparent in our fourth quarter. We delivered double digit earnings growth on strong execution, positive margin momentum and cost control. This more than offset weaker than expected end market demand as the quarter played out, which I'll touch on more shortly.