You are given a text that consists of multiple sentences. Your task is to perform abstractive summarization on this text. Use your understanding of the content to express the main ideas and crucial details in a shorter, coherent, and natural sounding text. 
Text: that contain a number of risks and uncertainties, among which are the potential effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on our operations, the markets we serve and our financial results.
We're pleased to report another good quarter of results.
We executed well and we continue to do a great job for our customers on many fronts in quality, delivery service, and our technology partnerships.
Our supply chain teams work 24/7 to overcome unprecedented logistics challenges and material shortages to keep our factory supplied.
And I am most pleased that we achieved a record level of performance and safety something our teams have been working hard at in all of our plants around the world.
As a company, we delivered GAAP earnings per share of $0.95, $0.83 on an adjusted basis on $232 million in revenue, an increase of nearly 10% from Q3 last year.
Our Machine Clothing segment continues to fire on all cylinders and grew sales by 11% compared to Q3 last year with excellent profitability and free cash flow generation.
Engineered composites delivered top-line growth of nearly 7% and performed well, as we work toward the upturn in commercial aerospace.
Our profitability was solid with gross margins of 40%, operating margins of 19%, and adjusted EBITDA margins of 26% and we continued our strong free cash flow generation, over $40 million in the quarter.
We have low debt and a healthy balance sheet, and we look forward to continuing solid performance from our Machine Clothing segment and gradual recovery in commercial aerospace.
As we mentioned last quarter, long-term secular trends are favorable and Albany's market positions, global footprint, and product development take advantage of these trends.
In our Engineered Composites segment, we expect commercial aerospace to gradually improve with narrow-body aircraft demand improving before wide-body demand.
Consequently, we're hiring employees and planning for a ramp-up in LEAP production driven by Airbus A320neo and Boeing 737 MAX growth.
We are coordinating with Safran to expand production in our three LEAP facilities in the US, France, and Mexico.
We see positive signs in international travel bookings as borders reopen and people have begun to travel internationally, although we don't expect any near-term pickup in wide-body production demand such as for our Boeing 787 composite frames line as there still inventory in the system and international travel has been slow to recover.
Our AEC businesses continue to perform well on our military platforms Sikorsky CH-53K helicopter, Lockheed Martin's F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, and Jazan missile programs.
We're fortunate to be on excellent programs and our teams are executing well.
We also continued our pursuit of new customers and new applications for advanced composites.
During the quarter, we announced our technology collaboration with Spirit AeroSystems to apply our advanced 3D woven composite technology to hypersonic vehicles and take advantage of our proprietary 3D woven composites in a high-temperature environment providing both structural robustness and thermal protection, and building on our proven ability to industrialize 3D woven composites at high volumes.
This is an example of the intense collaboration our teams are good at, working closely with our technology partners in the design, development, and commercialization of the most advanced composite applications.
In addition to working on engine component applications with our partner Safran, we continue development of Wing applications with Airbus Wing of Tomorrow program and other composite programs in commercial and defense applications.
Our Machine Clothing segment continue to perform exceptionally well.
Our engineers and sales and service teams in MC work closely with key customers to develop the next generation of belt materials for improved operational efficiency, performance, and durability.
And customers value our service technical expertise and innovation.
We saw a good demand in the quarter for new products and all product lines.
Demand in MC's end markets has been resilient and particularly strong in packaging in the Americas.
Tissue markets have held up although demand is mixed and flat overall as tissue machine utilization is below long-term averages and tissue producers are working through distortions caused by the pandemic's effect on away-from-home paper markets.
This should improve as workers go back to offices and students are back in school.
In other end markets, demand was strong in the quarter for corrugators, nonwovens, and building products.
Even publication was better this quarter, likely a pause in the longer-term secular decline of printing and writing grades of paper.
We are seeing significant logistics challenges and price inflation on various raw materials and wages.
So far, supply chain management and operations teams have done an excellent job.
They've been able to secure the materials we need to run our operations that only moderate increases in cost.
In general, we strive to offset inflationary costs through productivity savings.
This time may be different, as we don't see inflationary pressures abating anytime soon.
If anything, conditions grew more challenging during the third quarter.
Let me make a few comments on corporate governance and capital allocation before turning the call over to Stephen.
In early August, the company move closer to a single-class share structure following the secondary offering of nearly all of the Standish Family's ownership in the company with our few remaining shares converted to Class A common stock.
As a result, today, there are more than 32.3 million shares of Class A common stock outstanding and less than 1,200 shares of Class B stock outstanding, which are held by two former employees.
The transaction effectively created a conventional single-class governance structure for our shareholders.
As we mentioned in the past, our priority is to use our balance sheet first for organic growth investments where we can add value for our customers.
And then acquisitions that fit our strategy enable us to build on our technology, leadership, and market positions in both segments.
Adding to these options, Albany's Board of Directors has authorized a $200 million share repurchase program, expanding the set of capital allocation alternatives we have at our disposal.
We continue to look for acquisitions that advance our technology and market position at a fair price and we're focused on value creation from both an organic and inorganic investment perspective.
In summary, we had another good quarter.
Our businesses are executing well, we continue to push the envelope in our technology development with new products in both segments, and secular trends in our end markets are favorable.
So with that, I'll hand the call over to Stephen for more detail on the financials.
I will talk first about the results for the quarter and then comment on the outlook for our business for the balance of the year.
For the third quarter, total company net sales were $232.4 million, an increase of 9.6% compared to the $212 million delivered in the same quarter last year.
Adjusting for currency translation effects, net sales rose by 8.8% year-over-year in the quarter.
In Machine Clothing also adjusting for currency translation effects, net sales were up 9.9% year-over-year.
All major grades of product led by engineered fabrics and packaging grades contributed to the year-over-year increase in net sales.
Engineered composites' net sales, again, after adjusting for currency translation effects, grew by 6.7% primarily driven by growth on LEAP and CH-53K partially offset by expected declines on the 787 and F-35 platforms.
During the quarter, the ASC LEAP program generated about $25 million in revenue, comparable to the first two quarters of this year, but up about $9 million from the third quarter of last year.
We are pleased with the reduction in our inventory of LEAP-1B finished goods.
During the most recent quarter, we reduce that inventory by over 30 engine shipsets down to about 140 engine shipsets on hand.
Given the current rates of the inventory consumption on that program, we would not plan to have that inventory level drop below about 100 engine shipsets, so we can see the light at the end of the tunnel in terms of inventory destocking.
I'm looking forward to an earnings call for I no longer have to discuss LEAP-1B inventory at all.
We hope to return to a more normal levels of production on LEAP-1B on par with the current production rates for LEAP-1A early in 2022.
However, we do have some concern with the rate of which Boeing is destocking its inventory of finished 737 MAX aircraft, so there is still some lack of clarity around 2022 build rates.
We will hopefully have better insight for you on our fourth quarter call.
Also during the quarter, we generated under $3 million of revenue on the 787 program down slightly from the second quarter, but down from almost $9 million in the same quarter last year.
Third quarter gross profit for the company was $92 million, an increase of over 5% from the comparable period last year.
The overall gross margin decreased by 160 basis points from 41.2% to 39.5% of net sales.
Within the MC segment, gross margin was flat at 51.5% of net sales as the benefit from improved absorption was offset by the impact of year-over-year foreign currency changes and rising input costs.
For the AEC segment, the gross margin declined from 21.6% to 16.1% of net sales caused by a smaller impact from changes in the estimated profitability of long-term contracts, a change in program mix, and lower fixed cost absorption due to the lower 787 and F-35 revenues, and the impact of sharing with our customer base a portion of The Aviation Manufacturing Jobs Protection grant received during the quarter.
The $5.8 million benefit of this grant appears in the corporate portion of the results while the reduced profitability caused by sharing a portion of the grant with our customer base is reported in the segment results.
During the quarter, we recognized a net favorable change in the estimated profitability of AEC's long-term contracts of about $2 million but this compares to a net favorable change of about $3.5 million in the same quarter last year.
Third quarter Selling, Technical, General, and Research expenses were $47.4 million in the current quarter, down slightly from $47.8 million in the prior year quarter and were down as a percentage of net sales from 22.6% to 20.4%.
While R&D was up over $4 million -- over $1 million this quarter and while we also incurred higher travel expenses, these were more than offset by a foreign currency revaluation gain this quarter compared to a foreign currency revaluation loss in the same quarter last year.
Total operating income for the company was $44.5 million, up from $38.8 million in the prior year quarter.
Machine Clothing operating income rose by $9.8 million, driven by higher gross profit and lower STG&R expense.
And AEC operating income fell by $3.9 million caused by lower gross profit and higher STG&R expense partially offset by lower restructuring expense.
The income tax rate for this quarter was 29.4% compared to 24.7% in the same quarter last year.
The higher rate this year was caused by the generation of a higher share of our global profits in jurisdictions with higher tax rates and by less favorable discrete income tax adjustments.
We reported over $2 million in expense under other income expense this quarter primarily due to a true-up of indirect taxes in a foreign jurisdiction.
Net income attributable to the company for the quarter was $30.9 million, an increase of over $1 million from $29.6 million last year.
The increase was caused primarily by the higher operating profit, partially offset by higher interest expense and the higher tax rate.
Earnings per share were $0.95 in this quarter compared to $0.92 last year.
In addition to the normal non-GAAP adjustments we typically make to cover the impact of foreign currency revaluation gains and losses, restructuring expenses, and expenses associated with the CirComp acquisition and integration, this quarter, we are also adjusting out the impact of The Aviation Manufacturing Jobs Protection grant as we do not believe it is reflective of ongoing profitability.
After making these non-GAAP adjustments, adjusted earnings per share was $0.83 this quarter compared to $0.96 last year.
Adjusted EBITDA declined by 2.6% to $60.2 million for the most recent quarter compared to the same period last year.
Machine Clothing adjusted EBITDA was $59.2 million or 38.4% of net sales, up from $52.6 million or 37.9% of net sales in the prior year quarter.
AEC adjusted EBITDA was $16.3 million or 20.8% of net sales, down from last year's $19.5 million or 26.6% of net sales.
Turning to our debt position.
Total debt, which consists of amounts reported on our balance sheet as long-term debt or current maturities of long-term debt remained steady at $350 million.
We have a floating to fixed interest rate swap in the place of debt level for the life of the current credit agreement and currently, we do not intend to pay down total debt below that level.
Cash increased by about $33 million during the quarter resulting in a reduction in net debt by the same $33 million.
Capital expenditures in the quarter of about $9 million were roughly the same as incurred in the same quarter last year.
From a capital deployment perspective, as Bill mentioned, our priorities are unchanged.
The first priority is organic investments followed by disciplined and targeted acquisitions followed by returning capital to shareholders.
Our fundamental strategy has not changed.
However, given our modest leverage and strong free cash flow outlook, the Board of Directors has authorized a $200 million share repurchase program.
We believe that such a program will be the most efficient, effective and value-additive approach to returning additional capital to our shareholders.
While there is no guarantee that we will execute all or even any of this authorization, it is the company's intention to make use of this authorization subject to prevailing market conditions and while recognizing the inherent limitations on how quickly we can execute such a significant program.
Fully executed, the share repurchase program would increase our net leverage a little under one turn of EBITDA leaving us with sufficient dry powder for additional strategic actions.
As we look forward to the balance of 2021, the outlook for the Machine Clothing segment remains strong.
Q3 revenues were up over 11% compared to last year partially aided by some currency tailwinds to revenue, primarily due to strong euro.
Packaging and tissue grades remain the primary drivers of long-term growth.
While we also saw a nice recovery in publication revenue in the third quarter, driven by a return to office and schools, a continuation of this recovery is in jeopardy as a result of the Delta Varian surge which at par has paused some return to office efforts.
Also, after we get through the pandemic effects, we do not expect any change in the long-term secular decline in the publication market.
I would also like to note that the growth rate for the MC segment this quarter was unusually high driven by timing of customer needs.
Segment orders year-to-date are up about 6% compared to last year and backlog entering Q4 is only modestly higher than at the same time last year.
We typically generate about 23% to 25% of the segment's revenue in the fourth quarter, and we expect this year to be broadly similar to that.
As a result, we are raising our previously issued guidance of revenue for the segment to between -- to be between $600 million and $610 million, up from the prior range of $585 million to $600 million.
From a margin perspective in Machine Clothing, we delivered another strong quarter, with adjusted EBITDA margins of almost 39%.
We are seeing increased pressure from input expenses of all types particularly logistics and expect these pressures to continue to increase through the balance of the year.
However, as previously discussed, many of these cost increases began in Q2 and accelerated in Q3, have yet to materially impact our results due to both the terms of our supply agreements and the roughly six-month lag between procuring raw materials of the higher cost and those cost being reflected in the segment's cost of goods sold.
We will see more impact from these cost pressures in Q4, but we will not see the full impact until 2022.
In addition, late in the third quarter and early in the fourth quarter, we have seen some relaxation of travel restrictions in certain regions and are beginning to see our level of visits to customers increase, which will result in somewhat higher STG -- oh, sorry.
SG&A in the fourth quarter.
Driven primarily by the strong revenue performance, we are increasing our adjusted EBITDA guidance for the segment to a range of $215 million to $225 million, up from the prior range of $210 million to $220 million.
Turning to Engineered composites.
We delivered a strong quarter, very much in line with expectations.
Last quarter, we indicated that we expected Q3 profitability to be similar to that delivered in Q1 and it was within a few hundred thousand dollars of that level.
We were very pleased to be awarded an Aviation Manufacturing Jobs Protection grant during the quarter of $5.8 million which recognizes the challenges that we, along with the rest of the industry have experienced due to the COVID pandemic.
However, as I already noted, we have adjusted the effects out of both Q3 adjusted results and segment guidance for the year as it is not reflective of continuing operational performance.
While unlikely to have any material impact on the balance of 2021, we are concerned about the slow recovery of the Boeing 787 program where Boeing has indicated that they will continue to produce at a low rate for the foreseeable future.
As of the end of the third quarter, we had the equivalent of about five shipsets of 787 product in either finished goods or WIP which is not unusually high.
However, significant quantities of our finished goods exist in Boeing's overall supply chain, which combined with Boeing's low level of production will likely lead to very low levels of production for us, for the foreseeable future and may even lead to significant production gaps.
Any impact in 2021 would be modest as we are not anticipating any significant recovery on the program this year, but it will likely delay any meaningful recovery on the program until beyond 2022.
As you know, our production levels on the F-35 have been uncertain this year, as our customer has dealt with issues elsewhere in the supply chain over the last 18 months and with lower depot consumption of aftermarket parts.
We are confident in our outlook for the balance of the year, but I will note that Lockheed Martin and its government customer have established a new outlook for program production that plateaus at 156 aircraft in 2023, a lower rate, and an earlier date than the previously planned plateau.
The F-35 remains a very good and profitable program for us.
This programmatic change has no impact on this year, but it will likely temper the revenue upside in the program for us in future years.
Overall for the AEC segment, the year is progressing largely as we expected when we last issued guidance, although we are now less concerned about downside risk.
Therefore we are raising the lower end of our guidance range for segment revenues resulting in the range of between $310 million, up from the previous range of $290 million to $310 million.
From a profitability perspective, given the year is progressing largely as expected, we are maintaining the previously issued guidance range for AEC adjusted EBITDA of between $65 million and $70 million.
We are also updating our previously issued guidance ranges for company-level performance, including revenue of between $900 million and $920 million increased from prior guidance of $880 million to $910 million.
Effective income tax rate of 28% to 30%, unchanged from prior guidance.
Depreciation and amortization of about $75 million, unchanged from prior guidance.
Capital expenditures in the range of $40 million to $50 million also unchanged from prior guidance.
GAAP earnings per share of between $3.23 and $3.38 increased from prior guidance of $2.84 to $3.14.
Adjusted earnings per share of between $3.15 and $3.30 increased from prior guidance of $2.19 to $3.20 and adjusted EBITDA of between $230 million and $240 million increased from prior guidance of $225 million to $240 million.
Overall, while the pandemic is not yet behind us and risks still remain across our business, we are very pleased to be able to raise guidance yet again, reflecting the hard work and dedication of our teams across the globe.
The coming years will continue to be a challenge as we and the rest of the industry slowly recover from the severe downturn in commercial aviation and as the machine clothing market searches for its new post-pandemic normal.
We also recognize of our risks ahead in terms of supply chain constraints and inflationary pressures, should the recent and current increases be more than transitory.
However, our track record of operational excellence and continuous improvement positions us well to address these challenges.

user
compname reports q3 adjusted earnings per share of $0.83.
sees fy adjusted earnings per share $3.15 to $3.30.
sees fy gaap earnings per share $3.23 to $3.38.
q3 adjusted earnings per share $0.83.
q3 earnings per share $0.95.
sees fy revenue $900 million to $920 million.
q3 revenue rose 9.6 percent to $232 million.
on october 25, co's board authorized company to repurchase shares of up to $200 million.
share repurchase program does not have an expiration date.
sees full-year 2021 capital expenditures in range of $40 to $50 million.

assistant