Jason Crawford
Analyst · Evercore
Thank you, Tom. For the third quarter, we reported record sales of $425.7 million, representing a 5.5% increase from $403.7 million in the prior year period. The growth was led by our Metal Coatings segment, where sales increased 15.7% year-over-year, driven by higher volumes and infrastructure-related spending across our largest verticals. Although Precoat Metals sales improved sequentially from last quarter, sales were down 1.8% from the same quarter of the prior year, due to an overall weaker end market environment. Driven by lower volumes in construction, HVAC and Transportation, partially offset by residential reroofing and stronger food and beverage container sales. Within Precoat Metals, excess imported prepainted metal has worked its way through the market. And with tariffs likely to remain in place, we anticipate Precoat Metals will start to benefit from the replacement of prepainting metal imports. The company's third quarter gross profit was $101.9 million, or 23.9% of sales, compared to $97.8 million or 24.2% of sales in the same quarter of the prior year. Selling, General and Administrative expenses totaled $32.5 million in the third quarter, or 7.6% of sales. This compares favorably to last year's third quarter, which was $39.2 million, or 9.7% of sales, which included costs associated with severance and one-off employee retirement expenses. Operating income for the quarter was $69.5 million, or 16.3% of sales, a 180 basis point improvement compared with $58.5 million, or 14.5% of sales, in the prior year third quarter, due to operational improvements this year and nonrecurring items included in last year's third quarter results. For the third quarter, we reported a net loss in equity and earnings of $1.4 million. This was after recording $0.6 million post-closing loss adjustment on the previously announced divestiture of the Electrical Products business. Losses in the quarter from our AVAIL joint venture are primarily due to the excess overhead costs resulting from this divestiture. Compared to the third quarter of last year, equity in earnings were $8.6 million lower. With the sale of WSI in December 31, 2025, and progress in resizing AVAIL's overhead costs, we are forecasting equity and earnings from unconsolidated subsidiaries to be 0 for the fourth quarter of this year. Interest expense for the third quarter was $12.2 million, representing a $7 million improvement from the prior year. Driven by a combination of actions, including debt paydown, debt repricing and the introduction of the receivable securitization facility. The current quarter income tax expense was $14.5 million, reflecting an effective tax rate of 26.1%, compared to 26.5% tax rate in the prior year's third quarter. We do not expect the One Big Beautiful Bill Act to have any material impact on our income tax expense or effective tax rate for the year. However, it will reduce our cash taxes paid in 2026. Reported net income for the third quarter was $41.1 million, compared to $33.6 million for the third quarter of the prior year. AZZ reported adjusted net income of $46 million, which excludes the amortization of intangible assets of $5.8 million and the AVAIL equity loss adjustment of $0.6 million, our adjusted diluted EPS of $1.52. This compares favorably to the prior year's adjusted net income of $41.9 million and adjusted diluted EPS of $1.39, an increase of 9.4% compared to the third quarter of the prior year. Third quarter adjusted EBITDA was $91.2 million, or 21.4% of sales, compared to $90.7 million, or 22.5% of sales, for the same period last year. Turning to our financial position and balance sheet. Our strategy for deploying cash flow includes investing in high-return organic and inorganic initiatives, paying down debt, returning capital to our shareholders through our quarterly cash dividend and buying back our stock. During the third quarter, we generated cash flow from operations of $79.7 million. Capital expenditures for the quarter were $18.5 million, which included a combination of sustaining and growth capital. Stock repurchases for the third quarter were $20 million, at an average price of $99.28 per share, while cash taxes were higher in the quarter associated with the previously mentioned AVAIL joint venture gain offset somewhat by the impact of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. We ended the quarter with a net debt position of $534.7 million and $337.1 million in available borrowing capacity, consisting of $336.4 million in the company's revolving credit facility, and $0.6 million in cash and cash equivalents. After paying down $35 million of debt in the quarter, our credit agreement net leverage ratio was 1.6x, which is within our previously announced target range of 1.5 to 2.5x. And finally, as Tom mentioned, over the same period last year, we increased and paid our quarterly cash dividend of $0.20 per share, up from $0.17 per share. With that, I'll turn the call over to David.