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: Such statements are based on certain estimates and expectations and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties.
We encourage you to read the risks described in the Company's public filings and reports, which are available on the SEC's or the Company's corporate website.
Now I would like to turn the conference over to Karen Colonias, Simpson's President and Chief Executive Officer.
I'm pleased to discuss our results with you today.
I'll begin with a high-level summary of our second quarter financial results and will then turn to a more detailed discussion on our key performance drivers along with the actions we've been taking in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
We executed a strong second quarter with sales of $326.1 million, improving 7% year-over-year and 15% quarter-over-quarter on higher volume despite the significant level of macroeconomic challenges resulting from COVID-19.
We maintained a strong gross profit margin of 45.9% due to a combination of sales mix and lower material costs on improved overhead absorption.
This, when coupled with our effective expense management, resulted in a 35% year-over-year increase in our income from operations to $72.2 million and strong earnings of $1.22 per diluted share.
Our sales volume improved primarily due to the return of the home center customer during the quarter which resulted in significantly higher demand associated with the initial product rollout into those stores.
I'll give more details on this new customer relationship momentarily.
In addition, we saw improved sales in the repair and remodel market which were stronger than anticipated as a result of a shift in consumer behavior toward home renovation which we believe stems from the COVID-19 pandemic and associated shelter-in-place orders.
Partially offsetting this strength were volume declines specific to Europe following government shutdowns in the United Kingdom and France in late March affecting our operations there.
These facilities are now back up and running at near full capacity.
We've been extremely diligent in our efforts to ensure Simpson remains a safe place to work.
We've been enacting rigorous safety protocol in all of our facilities, including improved sanitation measures, mandatory social distancing, temperature screening, staggered shift schedule and remote working when possible.
These actions, in addition to being deemed an essential business, have enabled us to continue operating our business with minimal disruptions during the pandemic.
Importantly, we have not experienced any supply chain disruptions related to COVID-19 and have been able to continue meeting our customer needs.
I'd now like to discuss the key driver of our performance during the second quarter.
As some of you may recall, we had a prior relationship with Lowe's back in 2011 and we are delighted to have the opportunity to once again supply their customers with our industry-leading mechanical anchor, connector and fastener product solutions.
During the second quarter, we shipped our connector product into Lowe's and expect to ship selections of both our mechanical anchor and fastener product in the current quarter.
Please note that the sell-through into the Lowe's stores required for initial inventory stocking in Q2 and Q3 will not be indicative of volume trends moving forward.
In addition, we anticipate some of our mechanical anchor and fastener products will be phased out of the Home Depot throughout the remainder of the year.
These products were in some, but not all, Home Depot locations.
Next, I'll turn to an update on our SAP implementation, which has continued to progress on track despite travel interruptions related to COVID-19.
We have transitioned our rollout and training efforts to a virtual format for the time being which has been working out quite well.
As of the end of the first quarter of 2020, all of our US based sales organizations have been transitioned over to SAP.
And as of today, we still anticipate a companywide completion goal near the end of 2021.
However, we will continue to monitor and update our timeline should COVID-19 continue to impact international travel for an extended period of time.
As many of you are aware, we withdrew our financial targets associated with our 2020 plan back in April given the uncertainties surrounding the impact of COVID-19 on our operations, customers and suppliers.
That said, we've made significant progress from when the plan was first publicly announced through the implementation of strategic changes to our business to ensure the long-term sustainability and profitability of our operation.
By investing in adjacent products and markets, we've achieved enhanced diversification in our product and service offerings, leading our business to be far less reliant on US housing starts than it has been historically.
We also took significant steps to rationalize our cost structure in addition to reducing discretionary expense in the current environment in order to operate more efficiently.
The outcome of these efforts is directly evidenced by our 280 basis point improvement in our total operating expenses as a percent of sales for the second quarter of 2020 compared to the second quarter of 2019.
In summary, we are very pleased with our second quarter financial performance despite the highly volatile and unpredictable environment that has continued into the third quarter.
So far in the first few weeks of July, our net sales have increased approximately 10% compared to July of 2019.
Looking ahead, we believe the solid demand trends we experienced in the second quarter of 2020 from the addition of Lowe's and improved repair and remodel market will continue, offsetting expected weakness in housing construction.
Brian will provide additional detail regarding our reinstated financial outlook for the full year of 2020 shortly.
We look forward to continuing to execute our model with an emphasis on enhancing our operational efficiencies and cost savings which will serve us well through this pandemic and in the long term.
I continue to believe our business is very well positioned, given our strong brand reputation and loyal customer base which has been built over 64 years, our deep-rooted industry relationships, our many, many talented employees and our superior customer service standards, industry-leading high quality trusted products, a high level financial flexibility and a healthy balance sheet and solid liquidity position.
I'm pleased to discuss our second quarter financial results with you today.
Now turning to our results.
As Karen highlighted, our consolidated sales were strong, increasing 7% to $326.1 million.
Within the North America segment, sales increased 10.7% to $286.8 million due primarily to the return of Lowe's and the corresponding higher sales volume necessary to support the rollout of our products into their stores.
In Europe, sales decreased 14.4% to $37.4 million mainly due to government-mandated COVID-19 related closures which resulted in lower sales volume.
Europe sales were further negatively impacted by $1.2 million from foreign currency translation resulting from Europe currencies weakening against the United States dollar.
In local currency, Europe net sales still declined on the whole.
Wood Construction products represented 86% of total sales, compared to 84% and Concrete Construction products represented 14% of total sales compared to 16%.
Gross profit increased by 11.6% to $149.8 million resulting in a gross margin of 45.9%.
Gross margin increased by 190 basis points, primarily due to improved material costs which were partially offset by higher warehouse and shipping costs.
On a segment basis, our gross margin in North America improved to 47.4% compared to 45.1% while in Europe our gross margin decreased to 35.1% compared to 37%.
From a product perspective, our second quarter gross margin on wood products was 46.2% compared to 43.4% in the prior-year quarter and was 40.7% for concrete products compared to 44% in the prior-year quarter.
Now turning to our second quarter costs and operating expenses.
Research and development and engineering expenses increased 10.3% to $12.2 million primarily due to increases in cash profit sharing expense and personnel costs.
Selling expenses decreased 6.5% to $26.8 million due to declines in travel, fuel and entertainment expenses, professional fees and promotional expenses, which were partly offset by increases in cash profit sharing, stock based compensation and personnel costs.
On a segment basis, selling expenses in North America were down 4.3% and in Europe they decreased 13.3%.
General and administrative expenses decreased 8.1% to $38.6 million, primarily due to declines in professional and consulting fees and travel and entertainment expenses, which were partly offset by increases in cash profit sharing, stock based compensation, computer hardware and software expenses and depreciation and amortization.
On a segment level general and administrative expenses in North America decreased 7.9%.
In Europe, G&A decreased by 13.6%.
Total operating expenses were $77.7 million, a decrease of $3.4 million or approximately 4.2%.
As a percentage of sales, total operating expenses were 23.8%, an improvement of 280 basis points compared to 26.6%.
Stock-based compensation expense included adjustments to performance-based shares of 5.2 million in the second quarter of 2020.
Our strong gross margin and diligent management of costs and operating expenses helped drive a 34.6% increase in consolidated income from operations to $72.2 million compared to $53.7 million.
In North America, income from operations increased 41% to $72.2 million due to the strength of our gross profit margin coupled with reduced operating expenses.
In Europe, income from operations was $2.7 million compared to $4.7 million due to a combination of lower sales and slightly higher operating expense.
On a consolidated basis, our operating income margin of 22.1% increased by approximately 450 basis points.
The effective tax rate decreased to 25.8% from 26.4%, primarily due to a reduction in foreign losses subject to valuation allowances.
Accordingly, net income totaled $53.5 million or $1.22 per fully diluted share compared to $39.6 million or $0.88 per fully diluted share.
Now turning to our balance sheet and cash flow.
Our balance sheet remained healthy with ample liquidity to operate our day-to-day operations.
At June 30th cash and cash equivalents totaled $315.4 million, an increase of $13.7 million compared to the balance at March 31st.
Our inventory position of $265.4 million at June 30th increased $9.6 million from our balance at March 31st, in line with the seasonal increase in inventory we typically experienced in the summer and fall months due to increased construction activity.
We continue to be highly selective in regard to inventory purchases in line with our goal to improve our inventory balance through careful management and purchasing practices.
We generated strong cash flow from operations of $29.3 million for the second quarter of 2020, a decrease of $14.6 million or 33.2%.
During the second quarter, we used approximately $7.3 million for capital expenditures which included a minimal amount for our ongoing SAP implementation project.
In regard to stockholder returns, we paid $10.2 million in dividend to our stockholders during the second quarter.
On July 13th, our Board of Directors declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.23 per share which will be payable on October 22nd to stockholders of record as of October 1st.
As such, based on business trends and conditions as of today, July 27th, we estimate our outlook for the full fiscal year ending December 31, 2020 to be as follows.
Net sales are estimated to increase in the range of 1.5% to 4% compared to the full year ended December 31, 2019.
Gross margin is estimated to be in the range of approximately 43% to 45%.
Operating expenses as a percentage of net sales are estimated to be in the range of approximately 27% to 29% and the effective tax rate is estimated to be in the range of 24% to 26%, including both federal and state income taxes.
Notwithstanding the improved visibility, it is important to note that the potential economic impact related to COVID-19 on our operations, raw material costs, consumers, suppliers and vendors, which we are unable to predict at this time, may have a material adverse impact on our 2020 financial outlook.
In summary, despite broader COVID-19 related challenges in the marketplace, we were very pleased with our second quarter financial results and operating performance.
We remain focused on executing our strategy to drive improved performance moving forward.
Our industry leadership position, geographic reach and diverse product offering, combined with our strong balance sheet and liquidity position gives us confidence in our ability to maintain our operations and support current and future demand trend.
We look forward to updating you on our progress in the coming quarters.
For the second quarter of 2020 we generated strong cash flow from operations of $30 million for the second quarter of 2020, a decrease of $14 million or 31.2%.

user
compname reports q2 earnings per share $1.22.
q2 earnings per share $1.22.
q2 sales rose 7 percent to $326.1 million.
providing full year 2020 financial guidance on improved demand outlook.
sees fy net sales to increase in range of 1.5% to 4.0% compared to full year ended december 31, 2019.
sees fy 2020 sales up 1.5 to 4 percent.

assistant