David E. McConnell
Thanks, Joel, and good morning, everyone. Let's start a review of the fourth quarter results with highlights on Slide six. Fourth quarter revenue was $801 million, exceeding the midpoint of our guidance and increasing 1% sequentially. The improvement was driven by a 2% increase in volume, partially offset by a modest decline in average selling prices. Compared to 2024, revenue increased 12%, driven by an 11% increase in volume. Favorable foreign currency, mainly from the euro, provided an additional 3% benefit, partially offset by a 1% decline in average selling prices, which includes tariff factors. Moving on to the next slide, presenting the income statement highlights. Gross profit was $157 million, resulting in a gross margin of 19.6%, modestly above both the midpoint of our guidance and the third quarter. Margin performance was driven primarily by higher volumes, which helped offset continued pressure from elevated metals and material costs. The negative impact from our Newport fab was approximately 130 basis points. Depreciation expense was $54 million and flat versus quarter three. SG&A expenses were $142 million, compared to $135 million for the third quarter and to $138 million, the midpoint of our guidance. SG&A was higher, primarily reflecting higher compensation costs, higher R&D spending, and legal costs and fees related to accounts receivable securitization transactions, which I will discuss as part of our cash flow review in a moment. GAAP operating margin was 1.8%, compared to 2.4% in the third quarter and a negative 7.9% in 2024, which included a goodwill impairment charge. EBITDA for the quarter was $70 million for an EBITDA margin of 8.8%, down from 9.6% in the third quarter. Our GAAP effective tax rate remains unmeaningful at these low levels of pretax income or loss, as relatively small items such as foreign currency and repatriation taxes have a disproportionate impact on the effective tax rate. We had guided that our Q4 tax expense was going to be between $4 and $8 million, somewhat independent of the earnings level, and our Q4 tax expense was in that range. GAAP earnings per share was 1¢, compared to a loss of 6¢ per share in the third quarter and a loss per share of 49¢ in 2024. Moving on to Slide eight. Provides a summary table detailing revenue, gross margin, and book-to-bill ratios across our reportable segments for quick reference. In the fourth quarter, Newport's results continued to be reported under MOSFETs business segment, reducing that segment's gross margin by approximately 600 basis points, an improvement from the 720 basis points impact seen in Q3. All reporting segments delivered revenue growth quarter over quarter except resistors, which were impacted by continued delays in US aerospace and defense spending. Turning to Slide nine. In the fourth quarter, our cash conversion cycle improved to 125 days, down from 130 days in Q3, in part due to our continued disciplined working capital management. But in addition, during the quarter, we securitized certain non-US accounts receivable as a means of providing efficient funding to support our immediate 12-inch wafer fab equipment purchase needs, which contributed to our DSO improvement from 53 days in Q3 to 48 days in Q4. Inventory decreased $759 million, and inventory days outstanding improved to 107 days. Continuing to slide 10, you can see we generated $149 million in operating cash for the fourth quarter, which included $62 million from the securitization of the accounts receivable. We continue to deploy cash for capacity expansion projects. Total CapEx for the quarter was $95 million, including $75 million designated for capacity expansion projects. For the full year, CapEx was $273 million, compared to our guidance of between $300 million and $350 million, as delivery of some equipment related to our new 12-inch fab in Germany was delayed to Q1. For the year, capital intensity was 8.9%, which is a decrease from the 10.9% in the prior year. Free cash flow for the quarter was $55 million, reflecting the high capital expenditures partially offset by the securitization of the accounts receivable, compared to a negative $24 million in the third quarter. Stockholder returns for the fourth quarter consisted of our $13.6 million quarterly dividend. We did not repurchase any shares in the quarter. At the end of the quarter, our global cash and short-term investment balance was $515 million, and we remain in a net borrowing position in The US with $219 million outstanding on our revolver. As discussed in the past, dividends, any share repurchases, required debt service, and our Newport investments are funded through available US liquidity sources. We have $254 million accessible on our revolving credit facilities at the current EBITDA levels. We expect to continue to draw on our revolver to fund our US cash needs. Moving over to slide 11 and our guidance. For 2026, revenues are expected to be between $800 million and $830 million. We expect Asia revenue to be lower than Q4 due to the impact of the Lunar New Year, with The Americas and Europe regions making up the difference. We also expect to see sequential revenue increases in each of our five key growth segments: automotive electronic content, industrial power, healthcare, aerospace and defense, and AI computing. Gross margin is expected to be in the range of 19.9%, plus or minus 50 basis points, including tariff impacts and expected continuing higher input costs. The Newport drag is expected to be between 50 to 75 basis points, and we still expect to exit quarter one with Newport gross profit neutral and accretive thereafter. Depreciation expense is expected to be approximately $55 million for the first quarter and $218 million for the full year 2026. SG&A expenses are expected to be $153 million, plus or minus $2 million. The increase versus Q4 is primarily due to the accrual of assumed incentive and stock compensation for 2026 versus the lower level of incentive and stock comp in 2025 and a full quarter of fees on the receivable securitization. We are also continuing to invest in R&D and customer-facing activities. We expect to hold at the Q1 level of SG&A expenses for each quarter of 2026. Our GAAP effective tax rate is not meaningful at the low levels of pretax income or loss. We expect tax expense to be between $2 and $4 million in quarter one, assuming a similar mix amongst tax jurisdictions. Finally, our stockholder return policy calls for us to return at least 70% of our free cash flow to stockholders in the form of dividends and stock repurchases. For 2026, we once again expect negative free cash flow due to our capacity expansion plans. Now I will turn the call back to Joel.