K. Farkas
Thank you, Lynn. On Slide 4, I'll review the key drivers of our first quarter 2024 performance by segment. I'll begin in Aerospace and Industrial, where our overall sales growth of 8% was in line with our expectations. Within the segment's Commercial Aerospace market, we experienced strong OEM sales growth in excess of 25%, supporting the continued ramp-up in production across narrow-body and wide-body platforms. In the segments Aerospace Defense market, we benefited from both higher development program revenues and sales of actuation products on U.S. fighter jets. In the general industrial market, improved demand for our new power management electronics supporting the on-highway market was more than offset by reduced off-highway sales to construction markets. And turning to the segment's profitability, favorable absorption on higher sales was offset by unfavorable mix and timing on lower-margin development programs. Next, in the Defense Electronics segment. Sales growth of 31% exceeded our expectations, as we continue to benefit from our strong increases in global demand for our products. The sales performance was principally driven by better-than-expected growth within our ground defense market, where we experienced record high sales for tactical communications equipment, which included growth for both domestic and direct foreign military customers. Within Aerospace Defense, we experienced strong growth in embedded computing sales across a number of C5ISR programs, including the Seahawk helicopter, F-35 and Global Hawk UAV programs, to name a few. Regarding the segment's operating performance, we delivered a strong 22.7% operating margin, up 830 basis points year-over-year, reflecting favorable absorption on higher revenues and a shift in mix towards higher-margin C5ISR programs and tactical communications equipment. Turning to Naval and Power segment. Overall sales growth of 6% was essentially in line with our expectations. Starting in the segment's Aerospace Defense market, our results reflected continued strong global demand for our aircraft arresting systems. Within the Naval Defense market, our results reflected higher revenues supporting the Columbia-class submarine program as well as higher fleet service center revenues supporting the U.S. naval aftermarket. However, our results were partially offset by the timing of production revenues on the CVN-80 aircraft carrier and Virginia class submarine programs. In the Power and Process market, our performance was mainly driven by higher growth in the commercial nuclear market supporting existing operating reactors across North America. And turning to the segment's operating performance. Despite favorable absorption on solid revenue growth, our results were negatively impacted by a naval contract adjustment, as Lynn mentioned earlier in her prepared remarks. To sum up Curtiss-Wright's first quarter, overall, we generated solid absorption on a stronger-than-expected top line performance, resulting in 110 basis points in operating margin expansion as we continue to leverage the consolidated portfolio to deliver profitable growth. Next, turning to our full year 2024 guidance. I'll begin on Slide 5 with our end market sales outlook. We now expect total sales to grow 5% to 7%, reflecting strengthening demand in defense electronics and the added contribution from the WSC acquisition. Starting in Aerospace Defense. We now expect full year sales growth of 6% to 8% based on a strong and growing order book for our embedded computing equipment on various C5ISR programs. Within Ground Defense, we now expect full year sales growth of 10% to 12%, reflecting continued strong demand for our tactical communications equipment. In Naval Defense, our outlook for 3% to 5% sales growth remains unchanged, and is mainly driven by the ramp-up in production on both the CVN-81 aircraft carrier and Columbia-class submarine programs. Looking more broadly across our defense markets, our updated guidance also reflects expectations for increased direct foreign military sales, where we now expect an improvement from mid up to high single-digit growth, driven by the alignment of our technologies to support global defense priorities. Turning to Commercial Aerospace. Our outlook for 10% to 12% sales growth remains unchanged, driven by higher OEM production rates on narrow-body and wide-body aircraft, while maintaining a conservative view as it relates to the 737 MAX program. Wrapping up our Aerospace and Defense markets, we now expect total sales to increase 6% to 8% in 2024. Moving on to our commercial markets. In the Power and Process market, we now expect full year sales growth of 4% to 6%, which principally reflects the contribution from WSC. Within our commercial nuclear market, we've raised our outlook to a high single-digit full year growth rate, principally reflecting the contribution of WSC's sales in support of both the existing and small modular reactors. Elsewhere and partially offsetting the nuclear market improvement, we now expect process valve sales to decline modestly in 2024, mainly due to the timing of large capital projects. As a result, we revised the overall process market down slightly to a low single-digit full year growth rate. And lastly, in the general industrial market, our expectations of 1% to 3% growth remain unchanged and are driven by increased sales of our power management electronics and industrial vehicles and increased sales of surface treatment services. Wrapping up our total commercial markets, we continue to target full year sales growth of 2% to 4%. Moving on to our full year outlook by segment on Slide 6. I'll begin in Aerospace and Industrial, where we continue to expect sales to grow 3% to 5%, principally driven by the strength in Commercial Aerospace. Regarding the segment's profitability, we continue to expect operating income of 5% to 8% and operating margin expansion of 20 to 40 basis points to a range of 16.6% to 16.8%. Next, in Defense Electronics, we now expect sales to grow 8% to 10%, driven by the strong first quarter performance and continued growth in the order book, which increased more than 20% in the first quarter, reflecting a book-to-bill of nearly 1.4x. Regarding the segment's profitability and based on the improved top line guide, operating income is now projected to grow 11% to 13%, while operating margin is expected to increase 50 to 70 basis points and range from 24% to 24.2%. As a reminder, the segment's profitability also includes an incremental $5 million or 50 basis point headwind from internally funded R&D investments. And lastly, in Naval and Power, we continue to expect sales to grow 4% to 6%, driven by solid growth in our Naval Defense and Commercial Nuclear markets. Regarding the segment's profitability, while we anticipate favorable absorption on the overall increase in sales, our updated guidance reflects the impact of the first quarter naval contract adjustment. As a result, operating income is now projected to decrease 1% to 3%, while adjusted operating margin is expected to range from 16.1% to 16.3%. Of note, and as discussed on our February earnings call, our full year outlook also reflects margin pressures associated with the notable ramp-up in development programs across Naval and Power. For your quarterly modeling purposes, we anticipate this segment's second quarter sales to grow modestly year-over-year. In addition, in this segment, we expect sequential quarterly improvement in operating margin over the remainder of the year, with slightly more pressure in the second quarter based upon the timing of development programs. So to summarize our outlook, overall, we now expect total Curtiss-Wright operating income to grow 5% to 8% and operating margin to range from 17.4% to 17.6%, including a year-over-year increase of more than $20 million in total engineering spending. Continuing with our financial outlook on Slide 7 and starting with our EPS guidance. We expect full year 2024 diluted EPS to now range from $10.10 to $10.40, up 8% to 11%, principally reflecting improved sales and profitability within Defense Electronics. Building upon our solid first quarter performance, we expect sequential quarterly EPS improvement throughout 2024, and we expect to generate approximately 40% of our full year earnings per share in the first half. And lastly, turning to free cash flow. In Q1, we experienced a solid year-over-year improvement, reflecting growth of 37% on an adjusted basis. As a reminder, and included in the comparison, we also overcame the $20 million cash headwind associated with the collection of the final CAP1000 payment in the first quarter of 2023. Overall, we had a good start to the year, and that provides us with increased confidence in our full year free cash flow guidance, ranging from $415 million to $435 million and our ability to deliver a free cash flow conversion rate well in excess of 100%. Now I'd like to turn the call back over to Lynn.