Neil A. Schrimsher
Analyst · Stephens
Thank you, Julie, and good morning, everyone. We appreciate you joining us today. As we reported in our release this morning, sales for the 2013 fiscal year were a record $2.46 billion, up 3.7% from fiscal 2012. Net income for the year increased to a record $118.1 million or $2.78 per share, representing a 9.4% increase in earnings per share compared with fiscal 2012. Our full year results were driven by our operational efficiencies and disciplined cost controls. With the macroeconomic headwinds moderating sales growth, we were able to translate a modest sales gain into solid earnings and cash flow and we expanded our operating margin to 7.2%, up from 7.1% last year. For the quarter, sales were $640.5 million, up 3.3% from $620 million in the same period a year ago. Net income was $32.3 million or $0.76 per share compared with $32 million or $0.75 per share in last year's fourth quarter. We're pleased with our ability to increase our full year operating margin over the prior year while devoting significant resources to the implementation of our new ERP system. Across the business, our dedicated associates have been fully engaged throughout the design, development and deployments. We will continue the phased rollouts across the U.S. service center network, and we will be fully operational in the U.S. by the end of fiscal 2014. Our business transformation is well underway, standardizing and simplifying our processes, enhancing realtime visibility into the business, amplifying our continuous improvement initiatives and generating value add for years to come. In addition, we've been introducing new selling tools to help our sales associates be more effective, efficient and accountable. Consistent selling process across the organization is helping convert more sales opportunities into greater results. These tools, combined with Applied's knowledge about our customers and their equipment, our predictive maintenance offerings and our fluid power service and repair capabilities are all enhancing our ability to address customers' immediate product needs and their future requirements. Customers continue to focus on reducing transactional costs and consolidating their purchases with fewer and best suppliers. And we are well equipped and fully prepared to meet their needs. With our comprehensive product offering, operations in new geographies and multiple channels to market, including our service centers, fluid power sales and service facilities, full-line product catalog, applied.com and the new Applied Maintenance Supplies & Solutions. We have outstanding capabilities to address customer needs and productively reach all industrial end markets. Looking ahead, we are optimistic about the general industrial economy for the balance of 2013 and anticipate further economic improvements in calendar 2014. With the most recent industrial production and capacity utilization indices remaining at historical healthy levels, we know how to operate in this environment. For Applied's fiscal 2014, we are forecasting a sales increase of 4% to 6% and earnings per share in the range of $2.90 to $3.15 per share. I'll now turn the call over to Mark for a discussion of the financial results.