ESCO Technologies Inc. (NYSE:ESE) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Bryan Sayler: Yes, we meaningfully outperformed our internal expectations and we feel really good about that business going forward. All the information that we have is that utilities are making substantial investments in their infrastructure. And we are — we made a lot of — as you know, we made a lot of acquisitions and a lot of organic product development over the last six or seven years that has really positioned us in an almost ideal way to take advantage of that kind of infrastructure build out. So, yes, we feel like we’ve got a really good forward path here.

Chris Tucker: Yes. And John, I would say it wasn’t the result of a big pull in or anything. We just saw demand strong as we came through the quarter. And obviously, you saw Q2, Q3 were also very strong. So we just kind of hit — we kind of kept going that way and that’s what drove it.

Jon Tanwanteng: Have your order run rates in that business been roughly similar to what you saw in Q4, heading into Q1?

Chris Tucker: I mean, we’re always going to be a little bit lower in Q1, but as Bryan said, I mean, you saw the full year outlook there and I think we still feel good about the overall trends there in kind of the near to midterm. So yes, I think we’re kind of, I would say, chugging right along.

Jon Tanwanteng: Great. Thank you for the color.

Operator: Thank you. And I’m not showing any further questions in the queue at this time. I would now like to turn it back to Bryan Sayler for any close remarks.

Bryan Sayler: Well, listen, thanks for taking the time to [indiscernible]. We’re very excited about our 2023 results, but we’re even more excited about our outlook for 2024, and we’ll look to talk to you in three months.

Operator: Thank you for your participation in today’s conference. This does conclude the program. You may now disconnect. Everyone have a great day.