Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. (NYSE:MLM) Q1 2018 Earnings Conference Call - Final Transcript

Good morning ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the Martin Marietta First Quarter 2018 Earnings Conference Call. My name is Kevin and I will be your coordinator today. At this time, all participants have been placed on a listen-only mode. A question-and-answer session will follow the company's prepared remarks. As a reminder, today's call is being recorded.

I'll now turn the call over to your host, Ms. Suzanne Osberg, Vice President, Investor Relations for Martin Marietta. Ms. Osberg, you may begin.

Good morning and thank you for joining Martin Marietta's first quarter 2018 earnings call. With me today are Ward Nye, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; and Jim Nickolas, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.

A few administrative and clarifying items before we begin. All financial and operating results discussed today are for the first quarter 2018 and any comparisons are versus the prior-year first quarter, unless otherwise noted. To facilitate today's discussion, we've made available during this webcast and on the Investor Relations section of our website Q1 2018 supplemental information that summarizes our quarterly results and trends.

As detailed on slide six, we have enhanced our product line disclosures to distinguish between revenues and gross profit generated from products and services, and from freight arrangements. As a reminder, all margin references discussed today are based on revenues, and any non-GAAP measures are defined and reconciled to the nearest GAAP measure in our Q1 2018 supplemental information and SEC filings.

As detailed on slide 2, today's teleconference may include forward-looking statements, as defined by securities laws in connection with future events, future operating results, or financial performance. Like other businesses, we are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially.

Except as legally required, we undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether resulting from new information, future developments, or otherwise. We refer you to the legal disclaimers contained in our first quarter earnings release and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which are available on both our own and the SEC website.

We will begin today's teleconference with Ward Nye, who will discuss our first quarter operating performance and market trends, as well as the recently completed Bluegrass Materials acquisition. Jim Nickolas will then review our financial results and upwardly revised 2018 guidance, a question-and-answer session will follow these prepared remarks.

I'll now turn the call over to Ward.

Thank you, Suzanne, and thank you all for joining today's teleconference. Our first quarter results were in line with our expectations. Importantly, as the quarter progressed, underlying customer demand remained strong and customer backlogs continued to grow as bidding activity increased, particularly in the West Group and, most notably, in Texas.

Our Building Materials business saw strong shipment volumes on days not impacted by winter weather and improved pricing. Noteworthy as well, we once again posted record safety performance. With fewer reportable and lost time incidents than this point last year, our company's total injury incident rate now