Hexcel Corporation (NYSE:HXL) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript
Hexcel Corporation (NYSE:HXL) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript January 25, 2024
Hexcel Corporation isn’t one of the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds at the end of the third quarter (see the details here).
Operator: Good morning. My name is Audra, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Hexcel Fourth Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. Today's conference is being recorded. All lines have been place on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers’ remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Patrick Winterlich, Chief Financial Officer. Please go ahead, sir.
Patrick Winterlich: Thank you, Audra. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to Hexcel Corporation's fourth quarter and full year 2023 earnings conference call. Before beginning, let me cover the formalities. I want to remind everyone about the safe harbor provisions related to any forward-looking statements we may make during the course of this call. Certain statements contained in this call may constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. They involve estimates, assumptions, judgments and uncertainties caused by a variety of factors that could cause future actual results or outcomes to differ materially from our forward-looking statements today. Such factors are detailed in the company's SEC filings and last night's news release.
A replay of this call will be available on the Investor Relations page of our website. Lastly, this call is being recorded by Hexcel Corporation and is copyrighted material. It cannot be recorded or rebroadcast without our express permission. Your participation on this call constitutes your consent to that request. With me today are Nick Stanage, our Chairman, CEO and President; and Kurt Goddard, our Vice President of Investor Relations. The purpose of the call is to review our fourth quarter and full year 2023 results detailed in our news release issued yesterday. Now let me turn the call over to Nick.
Nick Stanage: Thanks, Patrick. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today as we share our fourth quarter and full year 2023 results. Hexcel completed another solid year, with double-digit sales growth, a significant year-over-year increase in our adjusted earnings per share and strong cash generation. Although, supply chain challenges, limited build rates in a number of programs from increasing as fast as we expected when 2023 began, most notably narrowbody aircraft. We continue to focus on ensuring operational readiness for the expected growth ahead. This involves training new labor across our manufacturing sites, driving operational excellence programs for yield and efficiency gains, and bringing assets online for the expected increase in demand.
All these efforts will position Hexcel to maximize our margin opportunity in the coming years as build rates ramp upwards. We continue to emphasize investing in employee training as we increase head count in advance of program ramps. We now have around 5,600 employees who continue to gain experience and are ready and eager for the challenge ahead. In fact, even though about one-third of our direct labor workforce has less than two years of experience with Hexcel, we just completed our safest year on record. This is an outstanding achievement, and I commend every member of our One Hexcel team for their diligence and commitment and taking the necessary steps to ensure that they and their colleagues go home injury-free every day. When you couple our legacy and lightweight products and long-term customer collaborations, with a talented team driven by innovation and excellence in everything we do, it is clear that Hexcel is well positioned to benefit as the aerospace market strengthens.
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