David S. Haffner
Analyst · SunTrust Robinson Humphrey
Good morning, and thank you for participating in our call. We're very pleased with the operational progress we made in 2012. As expected, we realized significant earnings leverage as unit volumes grew in several of our businesses. This led to higher earnings and significantly improved margins. We completed the restructuring activity that was initiated in late 2011 and realized the anticipated benefits. Western Pneumatic Tube, which was the first large acquisition we've made since our strategic change, exceeded our performance expectations during its first year in our portfolio. We have also maintained our focus on optimizing returns. Working capital levels remained lean throughout the year and operating cash grew significantly. Before I elaborate further on those details, I would like to thank all of our employee partners for their hard work that contributed to this 2012 progress. As we reported yesterday, full year same-sales location increased 1% in 2012. Unit volumes increased 3% but were partially offset by lower trade sales from our rod mill and changes in currency rates. Full year unit volume growth was driven by several key businesses, including automotive, U.S. spring, adjustable bed, geo components, carpet underlay and parts of residential furniture components. 2012 earnings were a record $1.70 per share at the high end of the adjusted guidance we issued on January 10, which incorporated the $0.18 fourth quarter unusual net tax benefit. 2012 earnings from continuing operations adjusted to exclude unusual net tax benefits in both the second and fourth quarters were also a record at $1.46 per share. In 2011, full year earnings adjusted to exclude fourth quarter restructuring-related costs were $1.20 per share. This 22% increase in adjusted EPS primarily reflected benefits from higher unit volume, cost improvements and the Western Pneumatic Tube acquisition. EBIT grew and EBIT margins also improved to 9.2% for the full year. Fourth quarter same-location sales decreased 2% versus the fourth quarter of 2011. Unit volumes increased 1% but were more than offset by lower trade sales from our rod mill. Unit volume growth during the fourth quarter primarily occurred in key residential businesses, including U.S. Spring, Adjustable Bed, Carpet Underlay and parts of Residential Furniture Components. Fourth quarter earnings per share, excluding the unusual net tax benefits, were $0.32. In the fourth quarter of 2011, earnings excluding the restructuring-related expenses were $0.22 per share. The year-over-year increase primarily reflects cost improvements, higher unit volumes and the Western Pneumatic Tube acquisition. Cash from operations increased 37% to $450 million during 2012 on stronger earnings and improvements in working capital levels largely from reductions in accounts receivable. Optimizing returns on capital employed continues to be a major focus for our operations. We ended the year with working capital at 13.2% of annualized sales, well below our 15% target. Our financial base remains very strong. We ended 2012 with net debt to net capital at 29%, slightly below the conservative end of our long-term targeted range of 30% to 40%. In August, we issued $300 million of 10-year notes. With the proceeds, we reduced our use of commercial paper and ended the year with our entire $600 million commercial paper program fully available. 2012 marked the 41st consecutive annual dividend increase for the company. During the year, we increased the quarterly dividend by $0.01 to $0.29 per share. Even the recent increase in share -- with the recent increase in share price, Leggett & Platt possesses one of the highest dividend yields among all of the S&P 500's dividend aristocrats. At yesterday's closing price of $29.04, the current dividend yield is 4%. Given the $188 million cash outlay to acquire Western Pneumatic Tube, our share repurchases were at levels well below those of recent years. During 2012, we purchased 2 million shares of our stock and issued 4.7 million shares, 2/3 of the issuances related to employee stock options exercises which increased notably in 2012 with a significant share price appreciation during the year. Consistent with our stated priorities for use of excess cash flow, we will prudently buy back our stock, subject to the outlook for the economy, our level of cash generation and other potential opportunities to strategically grow the company. We have a standing authorization from the board to repurchase up to 10 million shares each year, but has -- we have established no specific repurchase commitment or timetable. We assess our overall performance by comparing our total shareholder return to that of peer companies on a rolling 3-year basis. Our target is to achieve TSR in the top 1/3 of the S&P 500 over the long term, which we believe will require an average TSR of 12% to 15% per year. For the 3 years ending December 31, 2012, we generated TSR of 16% per year on average, which places us in the top 37% of the S&P 500 companies, just shy of our goal to be in the top 1/3. Our shareholders continued to benefit from our effort to achieve consistently strong TSR by profitably growing revenue, improving our margins, paying meaningful dividends and buying back our stock. With those comments, I'll turn the call over to Karl Glassman who will provide some operating highlights. Karl?